This is a thread to recognize all the hard work you’ve put in this season. Be proud of yourselves and everything you’ve accomplished!
Types of Robots and What They Do:
below-average robots:
Far Zone- These robots are basically there to do one thing, get in your way. This can range from irritating to stopping the offense from scoring. However, they generally don’t try to kick balls out of the zone.
Middle Zone- These robots generally try to get in your way so their better alliance partner can control the flow of balls. This can range from irritating to preventing you from kicking balls into your home zone. They may also try to block you from hanging or push balls through their tunnel into their home zone.
Home Zone- These robots generally just try to push balls into the goal, but have a low scoring rate.
average robots:
Far Zone- These robots are still basically there to get in your way. However, they are good at it ranging from stopping you from scoring to completely shutting you down. They generally don’t kick balls out of the zone because they are too busy defending you.
Middle Zone- These robots are able to pretty successfully control the flow of balls towards their zone. This will range from pushing balls up over the bump to quickly kicking balls into their home zone. Although, these robots generally cannot score from the middle zone they may be able to hang for bonus points.
Home Zone- These robots generally push balls into the goal. This ranges from scoring a couple balls a match unguarded to being able to maneuver and push balls consistently even under defense.
above-average robots:
Far Zone- These robots range from completely shutting you down to starving you of balls. Oftentimes they don’t so much play defense as kick all the balls down the field. They also might try to flip you over so as to take you out of the match. Oftentimes, the offense will become the defense as the offensive robot tries to prevent all their balls from being kicked out of their reach.
Middle Zone- These robots are very good at controlling the flow of balls towards their home zone. They range from being able to very quickly kick balls to their home zone to being able to consistently score from the middle zone. In special cases they may even lock onto the tower and redirect balls directly back into their home zone. These robots may also be able to hang consistently for bonus points and may possibly be able to suspend another robot.
Home Zone- These robots range from very constant under defense to if it’s in the zone it’s in the goal. These robots can out maneuver and / or out push the defense effectively rendering them useless.
imaginary example:
Team 4000 is below average in the Middle zone because their kicker can’t kick over the bump. However, because of their mech wheels they are very quick and agile making them pretty good in the Home zone pushing multible balls in at a time and the Far zone where they consistantly put themselves between the offense and the goal. They can also sometimes hang but have trouble going over the bump and lining up to do so.
Be Honest, explain you reasons for puting what you did if you want to, complement others, and be happy, you made a robot and had fun doing it! Remember, if you made it to a compitition your already a winner!
we are somewhere between a decent robot and a good robot. we can play lock down defense in the far zone, and we have the capabilities to clear balls, but we generally focus on playing the defense on the robot more. in the middle zone, we are good at clearing balls, but haven’t perfected scoring them from the middle. in the close zone, we can score pretty well, but we haven’t played it that much. and we do have the ability to hang at the end.
Our robot is between decent and good in the far zone, we have mechs, so we’re very maneuverable and we can kick balls over the bump. Depending on who our drive team is, it will depend on certain aspects of the strategy.
In the middle zone our robot is decent. We can kick balls over the bump as well as push them, and we have the maneuverability to get the balls away from the opposing robot. We also have the ability to easily travel over the bump and assist in the home zone for quick scoring.
In the near zone we are probably between decent and good. We can kick the ball if we’re just a bit away and get it in, and we can also push balls in multiple at a time. The speed and maneuverability of our drive train allows us to get around most opponents. We also have the ability to easily get balls off the wall, where they seem to be getting stuck quite often.
We do not have the ability to hang, but we’ve been told our robot looks like a smart car :rolleyes:
For just a second I thought you were talking about us! Though I have to say our driver is pretty cool and wouldn’t try to flip anyone over… though he doesn’t have any problem shifting into low gear and dragging the opponent into the wall or bump.
We also dont hang… but we figured the extra emphasis on the drive train and scoring mechanisms were more vital.
At this point in time I would say that my team’s robot falls in the “average” category by the definitions given for the ends of the field, and between “below average” and “average” for the middle. Honestly, some of the differences between categories are more driver skill (especially below average->average on the far zone) than robot design/capability.
In any case here are my reasons. At least at the Buckeye Regional, while playing offense, we would consistently score around 3 per match while defended when no balls come in or leave the zone (except when a ball is scored by us). In addition to that, we were able to cross to the middle and hang most of the time (non point in scoring non-existent balls).
In the middle, our kicker/rollers were having problems, so not much kicking over the bump later in the competition (although I think it was working at some point). With the exception of a few mechanism failures (something broke) and an unexpected situation (alliance partner’s weight loaded onto arm pushed it below the plane), the hanging was fairly consistent with multiple attempts being possible in the last 20 seconds.
We did not play much defense at Buckeye, but at the Boilermaker Regional, we helped to get our alliance into the semifinals by keeping 829 and 447 busy in the far zone for most of the matches, and preventing at least one of them from hanging (and IIRC, each time either of them did hang, they had a penalty for touching the ball return).
I think for Championships, we’re looking at the improving the reliability of the kicker as well as giving our driver some more time getting comfortable with mecanum drive.
Far zone: we can clear all balls in autonomous. We have mech wheels and are very manueverable, but we can be pushed.
Mid zone: controls balls from the return, can score from this zone also.
Near zone: push the balls to the side and can shoot multiple in at once. In one match we scored 4 balls at once and actually caused the HPs of the alliance to get a penalty!
Far Zone - Clears the balls out of there, and can play defense if needed Can’t say we flip robots, but you will have a lack of balls in that zone if we’re there!
Middle Zone - Where did the balls go:
Look up in the air! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s The FEDS!
Home Zone - We consistently put the balls in the goal from near and far. Our kicker allows us to shoot if pinned so we can get in those tricky shots. We are also pretty maneuverable.
Of course we can go over the bump or under the tower, so there is no lack of cross field movement.
As of our second regional in Philadelphia (we still had some programming kinks at FLR):
Far Zone: Above Average
With a 4-wheel independent, continuous-turn pivot drive, I have yet to find anyone who can completely outmaneuver us (just ask champions 341 the one team they were worried about) and only a few who can out-push us, though one or two make it difficult on either front. We might flip you in the process too, depends on your CG. We can also virtually starve the alliance of balls by kicking into the middle and sometimes home zones–we’ve even scored from far before.
Middle Zone: Average with a little Above-Average
We’re pretty successful clearing balls into the home zone, though we don’t score really consistently. We can still push around and outmaneuver (possibly flip depending) robots from here, but we don’t hang and we’re not loopers. We need a little practice in this area as far as consistently clearing the bump and scoring, but all in all we’re good at moving the balls.
Home Zone: Above Average
We can’t always pull balls away from walls/corners, but other than that, if it’s in the zone it’ll end up in the goal. We can out maneuver/push virtually all defense, though sometimes we lose the ball doing it, which delays us some. We can herd and kick, scoring at least 3 and often more like 5 per match from this zone.
We can easily go over the bump: through 2 regionals we’ve only once had any trouble at all, and that was mechanical. We’re also fine through the tunnel as alignment’s easy with the pivot drive–we were actually the first to do so at our first regional.
Scoring in autonomous is still down to luck, but we hope to prefect that for the off-season. We can clear from the far and mid zones usually, and at least get the home zone ball closer to the goal so we can pick it up in teleop.
Far Zone - Below Average, I think… We’ve never actually played in the Far Zone so I can’t really tell you how well we’d perform there. I’d imagine that we’d be able to play some hard defense if needed, but our kicker is only good to get the ball from one zone to the next.
Mid Zone - Average. We try not to play in the Mid-Zone unless it’s absolutely necessary. If we do get stuck in the Mid-Zone, then we can kick balls into our home-zone. Our ball possessor helps a lot because it allows us to “grab” the ball. (Watch out for Rev 2 at the Championship)
Near Zone - Above Average. We’ve made a name for ourselves playing as a striker. We can hold our ground if defended, thanks again to our ball possessor and high traction 8WD, but we’re also highly maneuverable.
Remember, if you made it to a compitition your already a winner!