DEWBOT VI Bridgewater Battle
DEWBOT VI participated in the 2nd Bridgewater Raritan Battle Royale (BR)2 at Bridgewater-Raritan High School in Bridgewater, NJ on 29-May-2010. Team 1640 received the competition's Engineering Excellence Award for DEWBOT's unique, multi-mode pivot drive-train and the mirror mounted to find balls hidden behind the bumps. 1640 placed 12th out of 21 teams in the qualifying matches and was selected by the 2nd Alliance (2753 Overdrive & 1279 Cold Fusion). We were eliminated in the semifinals.
Check out the event website here.
There was also a large VEX event held concurrently at this location playing Round Up, the new 2010-2011 game.
Contents
Matches
Qualifying Matches
Play-off Matches
Who was there
Students: Paul, Ben R, Carly, Matt, Douglas, Jen, Andrew, Kenneth
Mentors: Mike Rizzo, Heather McKown, John Stumpo, Faith & Clem McKown
Parents: Alex Klufas
- Drivers: Carly & Paul
- Operators: Paul & Jen
- Coach: Clem McKown
- Human Player: Andrew
- Administrator: Faith McKown
- Pit Captain: Douglas
- Pit Mentors: John Stumpo & Heather McKown
- Scouts: Ben R.,Ken & Carly
What was new
The (BR)2 Organizers spiced up the competition with the following changes:
- An additional ball is added in each zone for each alliance at the start of the game (4 in far-field; 3 in mid-field; and 2 near-field). So, there are 6 additional balls in play (18 rather than 12).
- Balls scored during autonomous period are worth 2 points each.
- In the final 20 seconds, two orange bonus balls are put into play, one in each end zone. Scoring the bonus ball earns two points.
- Hanging bonus
DEWBOT VI also sported some new features:
- Most visibly, a 12" high x 24" wide aluminized polycarbonate mirror was mounted on the top front of the robot, tilted forward at an angle of about 12°. This mirror enables the driver to see balls hiding behind bumps while the robot "strafes" sideways behind the bump. The mirror is hinged and held up with an elastic spring, allowing tunnel passage. The mirror may be set either up or down at the start of a match.
- Autonomous changes. Because of the increased scoring opportunity in autonomous (both more balls & double points), we modified the autonomous sequence as follows:
- No wheel calibration at the start of autonomous. Wheels need to be calibrated & pre-set by teather before the match.
- The 3-position switch is used to se the wheel angles to: 1) straight ahead; 2) 22° CW; or 3) 50° CW. The angles are selected for scoring using the middle column of ball positions from either the mid-field or near-field, respectively. By targeting the middle column ball positions, we avoid interfering with alliance partner autonomous scoring.
- The kicker was pre-armed before the match.
- Steering Motor Locking Pins were removed on the hypothesis that these were the cause of intermittant steering lock-up.
In addition, Paul was qualified as a DEWBOT VI driver and drove the robot during four of the qualifying matches.
Problems Encountered
Post-Mortem
Bridgewater Raritan Battle Royale Photo Gallery
Jen & Andrew installing the mirror stops
Jen, Douglas & Andrew installing mirror
DEWBOT VI's mirror
John Stumpo in pit
Paul in pit
Paul, Clem McKown, Andrew & Jen queued for match Q4
Carly, Kenneth & Ben R scouting from the stands
Drive team for Q7, Jen Carly, Andrew & Clem McKown, waiting through autonomous
John Stumpo, Heather McKown, Jen & Ben R in the stands
Andrew handling the trident
a ball on the trident
and the ball is on the return rails
Mike Rizzo...
...or is that Michael Rizzo?
reinstalling the lost steering chain
the chain gang at work
replacing the kicker elastics...
...is not as easy as it looks
robot in autonomous with mirror uo
leaving the field after a match
75 playing a tough defense - we didn't put ourselves in the goal
scoring anyway
view of the pit
Queuing up for the next match
Engineering Excellence Award
Jen
Team (Jen & Mike Rizzo missing - Clem McKown taking the picture)
