Robot Arm at Nationals

[jander14indoor]

Since the results have been announced.
Top 8 had perfect scores of 110 points. Top 7 were tied on the first two tie breakers and had to be ranked on time.
Winning time was 1:45 by Mira Loma, congratulations.
Great job by the many teams I saw today, it was nice meeting and speaking to some of you.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[peanuts]

Could you share the times for the other teams that medalled?

[windu34]

Could you share the times for the other teams that medalled?

3rd place from Boca Raton Community High School
Perfect score with 2:06

[jander14indoor]

Sure, in rank order, perfect scores:
115.90
120.53
126.69
129.87
139.37
149.25
171.34
158.66
That last lost on the dice with 6 up tiebreaker and never made the time tiebreaker.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[windu34]

Any hints to next year's challenge? Would you be willing to share some of the things talked about on Sunday?

[jander14indoor]

Ummm, it will be very different? At least as to objects and target. Most likely. Subject to change...
It will eliminate one or two of the arbitration issues we had this year, but probably create a similar issue of judgment and what you saw vs what I saw. Should be easier to settle as it will be a static case, not dynamic like the out of bounds calls (the bulk of the arbitrations).

Otherwise, I'd prefer NOT to get folks moving in wrong directions as what we talked about is still subject to change, at least in minor areas.

I'll give my standard recommendation for summer practice. First, take a short break and do something else to let your back brain work on the problem for a while. Then, focus on areas you had trouble under this year's rules. Don't sweat adapting to next year's problem, improve your general expertise.
- Make your robot stiffer and smoother. Eliminate bouncing around and jitter in the arm
- Improve your control system so it is intuitive, consider automation. We had two fully automated systems and one partial. They didn't have problems with precision of placement, they'd designed in robustness.
- Improve speed, as long as you don't mess with smoothness and stiffness.
- Figure out how to do things in parallel.
- SIMPLIFY! Many robots that were capable had issues due to excess complexity.
- Think in terms of ROBUSTNESS. Believe it or not, this is a fairly precise engineering term. DON'T assume what isn't in the rules (like accurate item placement, or field layout, or what's outside the field, or surface). Your device should be capable of consistent, high level performance under a wide range of conditions. Look up Taguchi designed experiments and understand the importance of intentional inserting noise into your test conditions.

Draft rules will be out at the summer (July?) NSO coach's clinic as usual, ask me then as I see no reason to hide what we've already shared with the coaches who attend.

Enjoy your summer!
Jeff anderson
Livonia, MI

[DaPlug]

I thought this event was extremely well run at nationals! Proctors and Assistants were all amazing! It would have been nicer if we had know that the placement of the dice had changed earlier so we could make the changes to our robots as necessary. Hope to see a more challenging field next year!

[jander14indoor]

The location of the dice didn't change. Go back and read the rules. You will find the WORDS for items and dice describe different locations. This has not changed.

And thanks, my team worked hard to provide a fair, consistent event. I was fortunate to have 5 experience returning team members who've helped me at past regional, state and national tournaments.

And the competitors were (as usual) a joy to work with.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[EMC314]

It was a great event - thanks for everyone's hard work!

I think DaPlug is referring to the picture in the rules that was changed. It showed the dice in one location, and then a new picture was posted (above) with the dice in a different location. I know many State competitions setup based on the picture in the rules. Just a suggestion - but maybe if significant rule clarifications/conflicts are not discovered prior to the 30 days in advance of the competition that the general rules specify, competitors could be given the choice of which interpretation they want to follow?