Robo-Cross B

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abby1kanobe
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by abby1kanobe »

I agree with Jeff 100%. I also stick to my original prediction of sub :45 to win nationals. By doing what he just stated someone will clear the playing field in less than :30 and have bucket pickup and loaded in approx :15. Not that we have done it but I am sure it will be done, and probably by more than one team!!
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ThatRoboGuy
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by ThatRoboGuy »

jander14indoor wrote:Trick is not to use the claw to grab them, use special tools held by the claw. Much, MUCH faster and more consistent/reliable.
Will leave the precise solution to you to respect the teams I saw doing it.
From what anyone at an open tournament could see:
Hint, one way opening.
Hint, magnets.
Hint, the solution is NOT complicated. I love crude but elegant answers in SO. Pretty/refined comes later.

And practice ALWAYS helps.

Separate help on saving time. Don't repeat motions unless needed. Pickup 4 batteries, transfer to box. Don't pick up battery, transfer to box, pick up battery, transfer to box, repeat...
Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI
Once you have cleared the board 47 times, you get really fast at picking things up. I can pick up ping-pong balls faster than any of our gadgets ever could. We have a new idea, though, that very well could work.
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by jander14indoor »

Not so much the pick up time the device saves, but the back and forth.
With a direct claw pick up you HAVE to go back and forth 8 times for the balls and batteries.
With the device I saw, pickups were quick pickup of all batteries and ping pong balls and only ONE back and forth.
I'd also argue the reliability of the device was better. It takes some hard earned skills (like your 47 trials) to pick up those object accurately with the claw. The device was accurate with very little training. Very tolerant of errors.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI
abby1kanobe
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by abby1kanobe »

Jeff,
Wonder if we saw the same device!! The design I have seen is capable of clearing the playing field in one single forward run, a quick turn around, then pick up of bucket, move into the the zone and unload. Bingo.....less that :45 with time for a Coke.
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by jander14indoor »

With you in Tennessee and me in Michigan, I doubt it. I've seen a couple of attempts at that, but none that successful yet. Maybe at the National tournament.

I can see where such an approach has the possibility of great speed, but will probably also be more complicated than what I'm thinking of.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by goodcheer »

DrunkWapiti wrote:People with kits please read this:

Hi, I understand this post will be deleted within a day or less. But I would like to bring up a topic that has really ticked me off this year.
me and my friend built our robot from scratch and used an arduino to program it. I currently control it with my phone over bluetooth.
Our robot has been doing fairly well this year, but at every meet we get topped by some rich private schools with vex kits and have a
"modification" of just replacing maybe a couple wires. Even after compliments from the judges like, "wow, you built that from scratch!"
I then look at the kids they represent and see that they have some $800 dollar kit. I dont have $800 to spend on science olympiad!
I swear, this event is a war on money! Personally, I would rather see this event taken out, or some sort of rule that discriminates
expensive kits, making this event more reachable for kids like me who dont have a ton of money to spend on Science Olympiad.
I also dont like mindstorms because you put just about no effort into your programming! I work my butt off to program my robot,
and what do you do? I hope some of you actually consider this instead of just ignoring.
This might be a little late, but, for the future, perhaps you could get your school district to fund some of your needs for materials. Or you could start early with some type of fund raiser or try to get some businesses to sponsor your team. Our school district bought a Vex kit for us several years ago which we have used, added to, and modified over the years. A local hardware store supplied us with materials for Mission Possible last year. We are a small school and funding is a concern for us too, so we have to use what we can get. It seems most of us who are scientifically minded find fund raising and other money matters a little distasteful. Maybe we should recruit some business minded kids? Maybe there can be a business related event in the future? Also, your suggestion about a rule change for robo-cross seems good. Perhaps the event could require the robot to start with a basic remote control vehicle base or something similar and then you would be able to add other components like a claw, scoop, etc. Anyhow, congratulations on your hard work. That will pay off even beyond this event.
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by abby1kanobe »

Alright, we have spend lots of money on our Robot and at several invitationals and even at State we have been beat by a cheaper version that was homemade. Robo-Cross is only 20% machine and 80% practice and strategy. That is what the spirit of the event is. I assume those who have beat our bot enjoyed ever second of doing it!! I am also sure many coaches will attest that the price of the kit means NOTHING to the quality of the run. Its all the kids and the time they practice and the knowledge they use to modify their bots. I know expensive bots look cool and draw a crowds but quality bots(not expensive Bots) that students practice lots of hours on usually win the gold.

I understand your frustration getting beat by a high dollar Vex Bot but I bet if you asked those kids, they have tons of hours working on the bot. Its not plug and play with these things.
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by matthew101802 »

abby1kanobe wrote:Alright, we have spend lots of money on our Robot and at several invitationals and even at State we have been beat by a cheaper version that was homemade. Robo-Cross is only 20% machine and 80% practice and strategy. That is what the spirit of the event is. I assume those who have beat our bot enjoyed ever second of doing it!! I am also sure many coaches will attest that the price of the kit means NOTHING to the quality of the run. Its all the kids and the time they practice and the knowledge they use to modify their bots. I know expensive bots look cool and draw a crowds but quality bots(not expensive Bots) that students practice lots of hours on usually win the gold.

I understand your frustration getting beat by a high dollar Vex Bot but I bet if you asked those kids, they have tons of hours working on the bot. Its not plug and play with these things.
I completely agree with you. At my state in IL, we got a score of 168 due to unfortunate events. A team, who had a homemade robot, used a toilet bowl cleaner for their scooper, won second with a time of 1:49. Just like all events in SO, practice and strategy is everything. The $5000 dollar Vex kit we saw got a score of 151.
SO Events 2013 (JV)
Inv/R/S
Boom 3/1/-
Keep The Heat 1/1/-
Shock 1/3/-
Pentathlon -/-/2



SO Events 2014 (V)
Wright State/Lisle/R/S/N
WIDI 7/8/2/29/39
Robo 7/1/1/9/17
Shock 2/1/1/1/9
Simple 12/2/1/11/26

Kaboom!
Total Medal Count: 20
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by Toms_42 »

Simplicity is key to winning, the teams that I have seen do the best were those with store bought robots with a scoop and that is it. Remember, the robot determines the best score you CAN get, but practice determines what that score will be. Anyone have a way to deal with the competition stress? my driver tends to panic at competitions, but remains our best driver at practice.

Also, I must admit we are the team with the expensive vex kit that does bad... I borrowed the vex kit from my HS (they ordered it for the vex competition but it came late and missed the deadline) and I decided to just go all out in the ballsiest design I could do, after having poor luck with a sheet metal scoop. it's too late to change to a high scoring simple bot this late in the year. I am still quite proud of my Omni bot with an overcomplex game system and 300 lines of RobotC controlling it, but I have no regrets, even if it can't do crazy well. (perfect scores we can do, but our time is poor.) As someone who doesn't really care too much about my SO scores anymore, I love just having as much fun and enjoying building the bot WAY more than I should be, but it resulted in a hugely complex bot with poor design choices early on.
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Re: Robo-Cross B

Post by 1nxtmonster »

I'm working on a Raspberry Pi solution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17oPoBvj ... EXwwyfkYUQ
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