Robo-Cross B

[Pleiades]

Playing Field

[fleet130]

Another copyright violation. If/when Science Olympiad wants the diagram published they will do so.

[Pleiades]

er sorry about that
anyway, i think this year it seems more challenging. I like that. As for controlling the robot.. do most teams have two controllers and have one controller control the wheels on the robot and the other controll the scoop/arm? Or do most teams have one controller that controlls everything. If theres only one controller it seems like the partner would have nothing to do.

[computernerd4826]

Arms are very slow. Scoops and buckets are always "Goins" to be better (SEE WHAT I DID THAR?) than claws or arms, so minimize their use where possible. I suggest that you use the doors method (in the wiki) to select what you pick up. It is MUCH easier to sweep things onto your scoop & bucket than it is to pick them up with an arm. Also, keep in mind that coins can be sorted out from other pieces pretty easily, since they always lie flat and have a lower profile than other pieces.

The Nationals winner (computernerd452?) got 14 seconds because it picked everything using just a scoop, dumped it into the can with a funnel, and the driver had a lot of practice. More time was spent aligning the robot with the can than on picking up pieces. Don't waste your time with a claw.

If it proves anything, scoops always dominated RR in Div. C, even this year when everyone said it was too slow.

Oh, just wondering, is there a picture or something of this year's field or does it look like last year's?

my robot, the winner, was a vex scooper that did 47 seconds because the people in front of us made the legos sticky
our best during practice was 16
and i did have alot of practice, once we completed about the hundredth practice run it became instinct

[computernerd4826]

er sorry about that
anyway, i think this year it seems more challenging. I like that. As for controlling the robot.. do most teams have two controllers and have one controller control the wheels on the robot and the other controll the scoop/arm? Or do most teams have one controller that controlls everything. If theres only one controller it seems like the partner would have nothing to do.

we had 2
i drove, flipped and scooped, while the 2nd driver operated the safety mechanisms to ensure a perfect score...

[gh]

I always did many builders, one driver. It's just easier to coordinate. If you screw up, nobody is there to see it. ;)

[Winkyeye]

it's so much easier with 2 people. I don't know how people can do it by themselves.

[captbilly]

Arms are very slow. Scoops and buckets are always "Goins" to be better (SEE WHAT I DID THAR?) than claws or arms, so minimize their use where possible. I suggest that you use the doors method (in the wiki) to select what you pick up. It is MUCH easier to sweep things onto your scoop & bucket than it is to pick them up with an arm. Also, keep in mind that coins can be sorted out from other pieces pretty easily, since they always lie flat and have a lower profile than other pieces.

The Nationals winner (computernerd452?) got 14 seconds because it picked everything using just a scoop, dumped it into the can with a funnel, and the driver had a lot of practice. More time was spent aligning the robot with the can than on picking up pieces. Don't waste your time with a claw.

If it proves anything, scoops always dominated RR in Div. C, even this year when everyone said it was too slow.

Oh, just wondering, is there a picture or something of this year's field or does it look like last year's?

my robot, the winner, was a vex scooper that did 47 seconds because the people in front of us made the legos sticky
our best during practice was 16
and i did have alot of practice, once we completed about the hundredth practice run it became instinct

It never seems to fail that something goes wrong just when it matters most. One of the teams at GW (Nationals) was getting between 30 and 60 seconds in practice, then literally as they turned on thier robot to compete, a wire broke on their control mechanism. Luckily they had two people running the thing. One was able to hold the wire in place while the other manipulated the controls. Unfortunately their time went from an average of 45 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds.

I saw another team, actually just one girl, who finished in about 25 seconds but one lego block went on top of the outer 1 inch square moulding. I think she felt that she would be DQed if she grabed the lego off the moulding with her robot, so she left it there (or maybe she didn't see it). She must have been fuming when she realized she could have fairly easily gotten gold, even if she took the couple of extra seconds to recover the last lego piece. I am pretty sure that the piece wouldn't be considered out of play unless it had fallen off the edge of the playing field.

[computernerd4826]

Arms are very slow. Scoops and buckets are always "Goins" to be better (SEE WHAT I DID THAR?) than claws or arms, so minimize their use where possible. I suggest that you use the doors method (in the wiki) to select what you pick up. It is MUCH easier to sweep things onto your scoop & bucket than it is to pick them up with an arm. Also, keep in mind that coins can be sorted out from other pieces pretty easily, since they always lie flat and have a lower profile than other pieces.

The Nationals winner (computernerd452?) got 14 seconds because it picked everything using just a scoop, dumped it into the can with a funnel, and the driver had a lot of practice. More time was spent aligning the robot with the can than on picking up pieces. Don't waste your time with a claw.

If it proves anything, scoops always dominated RR in Div. C, even this year when everyone said it was too slow.

Oh, just wondering, is there a picture or something of this year's field or does it look like last year's?

my robot, the winner, was a vex scooper that did 47 seconds because the people in front of us made the legos sticky
our best during practice was 16
and i did have alot of practice, once we completed about the hundredth practice run it became instinct

It never seems to fail that something goes wrong just when it matters most. One of the teams at GW (Nationals) was getting between 30 and 60 seconds in practice, then literally as they turned on thier robot to compete, a wire broke on their control mechanism. Luckily they had two people running the thing. One was able to hold the wire in place while the other manipulated the controls. Unfortunately their time went from an average of 45 seconds to 2 minutes 30 seconds.

I saw another team, actually just one girl, who finished in about 25 seconds but one lego block went on top of the outer 1 inch square moulding. I think she felt that she would be DQed if she grabed the lego off the moulding with her robot, so she left it there (or maybe she didn't see it). She must have been fuming when she realized she could have fairly easily gotten gold, even if she took the couple of extra seconds to recover the last lego piece. I am pretty sure that the piece wouldn't be considered out of play unless it had fallen off the edge of the playing field.

actually, she wouldn't have gotten gold.
we talked to the judges about the sticky lego and if we hadn't had the winning time anyways we would have gotten a re-run
our average in practice was about 20 with the worst being 25


sorry, i just am a little defensive about my gold

[WrightStuffMonster]

Nice times computernerd its funny the times for me in robot ramble were almost exactly the same. I do agree that having 2 people is necessary in most cases. I started out the year with a basic atom controlling multiple functions with a flip of a switch but went back to having a person control it because it gives you more options. It takes alot of practice to get two people to cooperate well enough to make two remotes worth it though. Finally I found it kinda slowed things down to have one person do more than about 6 functions as it required to much thinking. PS computernerd4826 do you have any pictures of your bot you could pm me? I am done with scioly as I dont have the money or the energy to do it again and my school is not going to have a team this year. But i would be interested to see how you did things if only out of professional curiosity.

I am pretty sure I am one of the few who got that "Goins" to be better reference. That is going back a ways. Still funny though. That is where I got the inspiration for my first ever robot way back in the 9th grade. It was a really good starting design for robot ramble and my inspiration for 2 years. I wish i could find the link to his photo album but it is eluding me now.