Talk:DEWBOT XI Indiana Robotics Invitational

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Post-Mortem - What worked

  • We were picked by an awesome team (118) and joined a great alliance
  • Rear RC guide - did not lose RCs after installation
  • 118's Drive Coach was awesome (See Ryan's emailed observations below)
  • Ryan kept the drive team calm & focused
  • Close stacking - better use of scoring platform space and no lost RCs
  • 3-Tote Autonomous
  • Can grabber hooks pinned
  • We worked before we played
  • MAR cheered us on
  • 225's scouting system

Post-Mortem - What didn't

  • Can Burglar replacement failure (what about having ready spares?)
  • Can Burglar hooks rotated (fixed by pinning)
  • Some NavX weirdness still (fixed or band-aided)
  • MAR got into eliminations (us), but underrepresented.

Could be better

  • Traffic/scoring choreography
  • We could have moved in autonomous after Can Burglar failure to pick up Robot Set points (4)
  • Can we add a noodle "cow catcher" to clear litter
  • Faster alignment needed - clear communications essential
  • We do not have a drive coach like 118
  • 118's drive team thought like the coach. They were able to recognize and exploit opportunities without explicit direction. They were capable of thinking on their feet.

Ryan's emailed input

I just wanted to throw in my two cents for the post mortem. I'm sure most of these will be brought up anyway but oh well.


  • We got the usual compliments about our human player effort
  • To me Eric seemed calmer. Granted I didn't see him at midknight and being down on the field it's hard to tell so feel free to overrule me
  • Dana did her usual amazing job with very few unnecessary tote-fixes
  • The whole drive team was able to filter out the excitement of being picked by the world-winning and world-finalist captains to do what we needed to do in elims
  • i think our role in elims was a new challenge for us. Rather than carrying the alliance we were asked to be a consistent team player which is not something we're used to. 118's drive coach told us that we played perfect matches and was overall very pleased with our performance
  • Props to the pit crew, adding a simple yet effective mechanism very quickly that saved several cans totaling literally hundreds of points, including at least two in elims
  • We worked incredibly well with 118 especially, coordinating the cans, auton strategy, and noodle throwing timing. A lot of that is owed to 118's drive coach but I'll get to that later.
  • the whiteboard. Small but immensely helpful
  • autolineup and eric using it
  • 3 tote


  • Maybe it was the crowded field or the excitement but we werent able to put up "bonus" stacks are they were termed. The third stack, although uncanned, could've made the difference late in the game
  • Early in elims the noodle depth may have been the reason we couldnt get our "bonus stacks" scored but we addressed and more or less fixed it when it counted
  • driving over noodles. 118 spent time clearing noodles off the platform for us that they couldve spent stacking. Easy to fix with a few ounces and could also be used for pushing noodles into landfill at the end of the match like 118 did (again incredible situational awareness from their driver/drive coach)


The only other thing I can think of isn't really a post mortem topic but more of a note when we look for a permanent drive coach. 118's drive coach was a drive coach-slash-strategy-slash-rule knowledge-slash-situational awareness God. When they picked us, it wasn't 118, wave, and sabbotage working together. It was one team that just happened to have just met. And that was all due to robonaut's coach. He had total control over everything that happened on and off the field from the moment we got picked. That huddle we had on the practice field was incredibly insightful. He brought up everything possible. Not just the usual who's stacking from where and which platform space people will use but what time in the match we'll throw noodles, which alliance stations people should be in to maximize 118's visibility, which side of the landfill they were going to do first based on both visibility and noodle accumulation, whether it was worth it to noodle wave's stacks due to their noodle issues or shoot for throwing them into other robots or onto the platform (which changed based on who we were against), and exploring what would change if one of us broke down and we needed 67 to play. He was constantly giving us reminders and post match speeches and even when we were with them in a qual he was reminding us to stay calm and everything he needed us to do. In my honest opinion he's the reason they won worlds. I talked with him for at least half an hour before our qual and he was so knowledgable about all aspects of the robot, but also so experienced, something I frankly am not, and incredibly calm. I honestly don't think it's possible for the team to find someone that good out of the people currently involved with 1640, but I think most importantly this past weekend I learned how crucial the position is. Whoever it ends up being needs to be chained to the rule manual and needs to be instrumental in the strategy phase. The impression I got was that there are 2 head honchos on 118, the drive coach and their head mentor. We're lacking in the drive coach category and I think if we develop that area of our team further (and the drive team by extension, because the driver and operator of 118 were both basically drive coaches themselves) we'll have a better shot at making it to the next level.


Ryan

Important to remember

  • Watch out for hubris (arrogance)
  • Be the team people want to work with

Duel on the Delaware and Ramp Riot considerations

Duel on the Delaware (and Ramp Riot) traditionally do not allow alliance selection within the top 8 seeded teams.

1640, together with 225 & 1218 (the best landfill stackers around) are all very likely to seed in the top 8.

Assuming this, 1640 is not going to be able to pick an effective landfill stacking alliance partner. It will be easier for 225 and 1218 to select two effective human player stackers. This is something of a conundrum for us. What to do?

Plan A

For various reason (rule change; 225 or 1218 do not seed in top 8), 225 or 1218 are available. Problem solved.

Plan B

  • 1640 - 3-tote & HP stacking
  • 1st pick - best HP stacker available - Can Burglars preferred
  • 2nd pick - Can Burglar - Able to feed RCs to stackers

Issue: Only 2 robots scoring and scoring limited to (30) totes behind the human player station and available RCs.

Plan C

  • 1640 - 3-tote & Landfill Stacking
  • 1st pick - best HP stacker available - Can Burglars preferred
  • 2nd pick - best HP stacker available - Can Burglars preferred

Issue: 1640 does not have any successful experience as a landfill stacker. It is not what we do best. As a human player stacker, we probably have the highest scoring potential on the alliance. Can we reasonably hope to win this way? We need to practice landfill stacking in a very serious way if this is our strategy.

Plan D

Starvation strategy

  • 2 fast Can Burglars needed to attempt to deprive step RCs to the opposition
  • Likely to sacrifice 3-Tote if we need to become a Can Burglar
  • From this point, either Plans B or C may be pursued, but Plan B makes more sense.

Summer Projects

  1. KOP (or 6WD) Chassis - for engineering and driving experience
  2. Shifting Swerve
  3. Lighter Swerve
  4. Swerve with real encoders - essential
  5. JAVA
  6. CAN - essential
  7. Sponsors needed!