DEWBOT VI Monty Madness

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Revision as of 22:20, 16 May 2010 by ThatGirlFromConestoga (talk | contribs) (Problems Encountered)

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15-May-2010 at Montgomery High School in Skillman, NJ. This is our third year at Monty Madness (see DEWBOT IV and V's competitions). Check out the event website.

Sab-BOT-age made a strong showing against a very competitive field, finishing 10th seed out of 42 teams.

Did I already mention that this was a competitive field? See Siri Maley's Scouting Database for the details.

We were the first selection of team 365 (MOE), captain of the 6th alliance. Team 2344 (Saunders Droid Fatory) completed our alliance. Alas, we were defeated in the quarterfinals by the 4th alliance (103 Cybersonics, 341 Miss Daisy and 75 RoboRaiders).

A tough competition. We played well.

Matches

Who was there

Students: Paul, Ben R, Carly, Douglas, Jen, Michael, Sasha, Andrew
Mentors: Mike Rizzo, Siri Maley, John Stumpo, Faith & Clem McKown
Parents: Susan & John Weissman, David Wall

Driver: Carly & Paul
Operators: Sasha, Paul, Michael & Jen
Coaches: Clem McKown & Siri Maley
Human Player: Andrew
Administrator: Faith McKown
Pit Captain: Douglas
Scout: Siri Maley

Problems Encountered

  • During the first quarterfinal match, our battery (#1) failed, even though the charger (the newest fast-charger) indicated a full charge. This battery had been used for our first qualifying match (Q3), without problems. I suspect the charger; although the charging cycle and time for this battery appeared normal, the subsequent battery put on this charger failed to charge (the charger did not see it). This battery did charge on an old charger. This failure was not due to battery inattention.
  • The drivetrain occassionally went crazy, with wheels going in unpredictable directions and uncoordinated with each other. Occured in a number of matches. Seems to be a new problem. Cause unknown. Steering motors were checked immediately afterwards and were not hot. Battery voltage okay.
  • The IR sensor does not seem reliable. Monty Madness has bright, low field lights which could be interfereing with the sensor. Sensor also not a useful indicator in teleop mode.
  • We wore out the Deaver tread during the 1st quarterfinal (probably a casualty of the battery problem). Did not replace (no time).
  • We went to the first quarterfinal match with a loose wheel axle collar. This is on the pit checklist, and apparantly not checked.
  • Had to replace the kicker elastics. This caused no problem in competition.

Post-Mortem

Overall, Sab-BOT-age and DEWBOT VI did a great job at Monty Madness. This competition is packed with many superlative FRC teams from the area (being decidedly NJ-centric). When I looked at the list of attending teams, I was decidedly concerned over our prospects.

Our good performance, however, does not leave us with nothing to learn.

The battery failure during the 1st quarterfinal occured in spite of careful battery management. The timing of this failure could have hardly been worse. We need to isolate the cause of this failure and correct this.

Likewise, we need to understand and correct the erratic drive-train behavior. This seems to be a new problem (not the old Pivot 4 story).

Autonomous performance was significantly better than in past competitions (We scored! On purpose!), but we still have miles to go before we sleep. I would like us to explore replacing the IR sensor with a LED and shielded photodetector on opposite Ball Dam Gussetts. When a ball (or anything) breaks the beam, kick (in autonomous). There are also valuable teleop benefits to a sensor detecting a ball in position (there are a lot of places on the field that the driver cannot see because of the bumps, and balls do tend to accumulate there).

Driver controls and driver intuition do not seem to be aligned. I've been informed that I need to buy an X-Box 360 for the driver to solve this problem. Am open to alternative solutions as well.

The Deaver tread attachment system is great, but we need pre-punched treads for a fast change (but even this would not have been fast enough between the two quarterfinals). We should change all wheels over before (BR)².

The new battery box survived Monty Madness. A cursory examination of the old box made it abundantly clear that it would have failed in competition had we not replaced it. As anticipated, the crack originated at a sharp interior corner from the scroll saw cut.

Douglas did a great job a Pit Captain, but some purposeful pit crew training is needed.

Post-competition meetings were held and the Pit Process followed were time allowed (some competitions were too close together to allow this luxury). These processes were both posted in the pit.

An Observation: Robots hang, but this is not so common. Many robots which are able hang do not. My sense is that the math just doesn't work. If you can score (or defend), it is more effective to spend the 20 sec or so necessary to hang in scoring or defending. I think we made the correct strategic decision when we opted not to hang. In two (2) Regionals and (2) off-season events, I have yet to see a suspended robot. Many robots that attempt to hang fail to succeed.

Monty Madness Photo Gallery