DEWBOT VI Ramp Riot

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Siri Maley & Carly prepare to remove DEWBOT VI from the field following our first qualification match
Placed 21st out of 36 in the qualifying matches. We were selected as a partner for the 5th alliance, comprising Teams 303 (Panther Robotics), 522 (Robowizards) and ourselves. Alas we lost a Pivot in the first playoff match and were unable to repair this before the 2nd match in which our alliance was eliminated.

We had to deal with several other mechanical problems during the match.

This was a first competition for several students and mentors.

After competing in two Regional Competitions, IRI, and five "mere mortal" off-season competitions, giving six Demonstrations and an unprecedented level of driving practice, DEWBOT VI is OFFICIALLY RETIRED. No robot is 1640 history has seen this level of active use! DEWBOT VI is looking forward to enjoying its long retirement puttering around as a programming testbed, prototype chassis, and opposition-force practice robot.

Matches

Qualifying Matches

(3-2). Finished 21st of 36 teams. Played some very effective defense. Didn't score much due to non-operational kicker in all but the last match.

Play-off Matches

(0-2). we played only the first match, where our #2 pivot disintegrated.

Who was there

Students: Matt, Douglas, Carly, Ben, Sasha, Nicole, Michael B, Garrison, Molly, Yahya, Mike M, Jack

Mentors: Ben Kellom, Gary Deaver, Juliet Christopher, Siri Maley, Clem & Faith McKown

Parent: Roma Klufas, Ellen Kellom, David Wall, Sue Weissman

Driver: Carly
Operator: Sasha
Human Players: Douglas, Garrison, Jack, Molly
Coaches: Siri Maley, Clem McKown
Scouts: Siri Maley, Carly, Yahya, Mike M, Mike B
Pit: Ben Kellom, Douglas, Molly, Ben, Matt, Gary Deaver
Girls in Gear Volunteers: Nicole, Christina, Emma, Adrienne Drexel, Bob Whalen, Foster Schucker, Steve Rhoads along with Andrew and Patrick from KTOR

Mechanical Problems

During our practice match, the lower possessor bar did not deploy until near the end of the match. Therefore the possessor and kicker could not be used. This mechanism worked properly when brought back to the pit and tested.

Our Kicker would not arm during the first four (of five) qualifying matches. Reason was that the kicker latch wire ties were replaced incorrectly (zip latch at the back), preventing proper latching. Unfortunately we were slow to catch this (the first four matches were closely spaces).

We bent two left-side lower possessor bar cylinder rods, depleting our stock of spares.

Our key failure, however, was the failure of the left-rear pivot during our first playoff match. Failure occurred at the Pivot Tube/Pivot Top junction. We replaced the failed pivot (with our last spare), but not in time for the 2nd playoff match.

Post-Mortem

We played great defense. We were noticed for this fact by 303 scouts. I think, however, we are too comfortable with this ability.

We played offense in only one match (our first qualifier). During this match, we scored 3 points (and our alliance won) in spite of the fact that our kicker and possessor were totally inoperable.

During our final qualifying match, we elected to play defense even though our kicker problem had been diagnosed and repaired. Our defensive play during this match was fine, but our offensive alliance partner was not able to score. Our alliance lost. Maybe we would have done better had we gone over to offense for this match.

Kicker

We should have diagnosed this problem earlier. We focused interactions with the possessor lower bar and on wiring and failed to correctly identify the cause. Our bad.

Pivot

Connection between Pivot Tube and Pivot Top was a known weak point. This will be made stronger next year (if we use the Pivot design again).
Replacement of the broken pivot takes too long.
Ben Kellom has been advocating a more modular design for the pivot, allowing replacement of entire unit including motors, chains, etc. This failure strengthens Ben case. The design team will actively pursue an "as modular as practical" design.
Our spare pivot was not kept up-ta-date and ready-to-use. This cost us time (although it is doubtful that replacement would have been fast enough even without this delay). Spares are most useful if they are ready-to-use; otherwise not so much.

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