Talk:DEWBOT VII FRC Championship

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Revision as of 11:28, 7 May 2011 by MaiKangWei (talk | contribs) (→‎Post-Mortem)

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To Do List

Wednesday (5 people only)
  1. Uncrate
  2. Set up pit
  3. Get encryption key
Before Inspection (can be Wednesday)
  1. Switch solenoid to install vent valve for faster deployment
  2. Put Bident back on
  3. Put on calibrated camera
  4. Switch claw to more robust version
Preferably before Field Calibration/Practice (8AM/9AM) Thursday
  1. Tune steering PID

Schedule

  1. Pits Open: 5PM-9:30PM Wednesday, 7:15AM-8:00PM Thursday, 7:00AM-7:00PM Friday, 7:00AM-5:00PM Saturday
  2. Field Calibration: 8-8:45AM Thursday (both fields)
  3. Drivers' Meetings: 8:15-9:15AM Thursday & 7:45-8:00AM Friday (2 drive team members, Archimedes Dome Field)
  4. Practice Matches: 9AM-Noon Thursday (Dome)
  5. Qualification Matches: 1:00PM–7:00PM Thursday (Dome), 9:30AM–12:00PM & 1:00PM–5:00PM Friday (Pits), 8:15AM–10:30AM Saturday (Dome)
  6. Elimination Matches: Noon–2:30PM (Dome), 4:00PM-6:00PM (Einstein)

Post-Mortem

There was a Post-Mortem meeting on 4-May (notes taken?). In addition, Clem McKown & Julie Christopher (who could not attend this meeting), both prepared their own observations:

Clem McKown noted (written 30-June):

  • We need written rules (and consequences) of behavior, performance
  • Also set expectations
  • Hanging performance much better (4 tubes) when the drive team, communications and allies had their act together. (2) tubes when they don't or when alliances don't work. Drive team performance mostly good but still irregular. This is a significant and welcome improvement over Regional performance.
  • We got a red card in our first qualification match. Robot went wild coming out of autonomous and careened into the lane divider wall. We disabled, but refs called a red card.
  • We continued to have communications problems. We changed the D-Link, which improved things for a while, then problems reoccurred. Reset the D-Link and problems were eliminated and did not return.
  • We drop a lot of tubes when we are hanging over ubertubes. We tend to drive too close and force the tube angle out on top.
  • Autonomous reliability remains extremely low, despite high reliability at DRC.
  • Individual drive speeds (off-ground) are different, left-rear & right-front (right drives) are faster than right-rear & left-front (left drives)
  • Minibot reliability and performance were quite good. All purposeful deployments ended with a successful minibot run. We always placed 1st or 2nd. We did not, however, test this system in elimination matches. Also, ramp bots are quite fast.
  • No real repairs were needed. The pit job was deathly dull. Remember, we only saw qualification matches.
  • We had a pit check list.
  • There was a projecting point on the polypropylene claw which apparently punctured a white tube we were trying to hang during our 4th match. Subsequently corrected, but we lost this match and could have reasonably won it.
  • Alliance communications during qualifications are difficult. Can we improve?
  • We found the main air leak in the pneumatic system (and fixed)

Julie Christopher wrote (extracted from a 4-May email):

What I think went well at Championship:
  • The pit seemed to be well run and the bot well maintained.
  • The pre-match routine seemed to work well and queuing seemed to go smoothly.
  • Scouts seemed to be working hard collecting information.
  • The team, especially the drive team, never gave up even despite an early setback and comm losses during matches.
  • We were able to get to the practice field and use our time there to the fullest, with no wasted time or missed chances.
  • Overall: Everything seemed to go smoothly in terms of the bot and being ready for matches.
What I think could use improvement (for competitions in general):
  • The team should have a clearly defined team schedule so that mentors and students know ahead of time where they are expected and when.
  • Tasks should be assigned and known to all so everyone knows what everyone else is responsible for.
  • The scouting team should have a plan for breaks if they need them, utilizing all available and willing people as necessary.
  • It would have been nice to be a little more organized so that everyone could try to sit together for matches.
  • Overall: Communication is key and I believe better communication could make us a more tightly-knit team.
Suggestions for next season (in particular, to make autonomous more reliable):
  • If we have two bots again, we need to have sufficient time to thoroughly compare their behavior to one another before ship date.
  • We should explore mechanical ways to lock the pivot wheels so that they can only go straight (and then unlock them again).
  • We should look into gyros and speed/distance encoders.
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