I have heard/seen lots of pics and vids of RC mode nothing really related to autonomous mode. I figure this is because of the diffculty of programing a robot to find a possibly moving goal. But if you think about it, most of the robots who did very well last year in the dome had an at least decent autonomous mode. This year may be a little different but I still think a team with a good program would be a contender if not the winner of their regional. Anybody agree with me?
This year so far, i have seen quite a few robots simply moving forwards, pushing the single and paired goals into their quadrent on the opposit side of the fields.
I have also seen some teams go up to a single goal, score their 2 preloaded rings, and then pull it back into their quadrent.
Both methods seem fairley successfull but who knows,? somebody i havn’t seen may have better
The best auto mode I’ve seen so far is team 55’s. They go to the low goal and score 2 rings and then grab the goal and pull it back. Pretty awesome in my opinion.
You definitely need a good autonomous mode. Last year at least five matches, including the final, came down to the extra points. It will be harder this year because of the moving goal. I’m still not sure what I am going to do in autonomous.
This team in Ontario Regional (not gonna say who ^^) attaches grabs onto the 3-pointer goal and scored 2 rings. Then they pulled the goal back. They did this so fast that htey were 100% accurate. Then they would try for the other posts.
This worked quite well for them.
It seems to me everyone is being conservative this year and only donig what they are sure will some how get them points. If time permits though my team will really put some thought into our program and not just try and grab a goal. again thats if time permits, we almost always are finishing our robot before the competition b4 our first match.
Sometimes a sure way to get points is better than a way that works once in a while. For example if you score 14 points in 10 out of 10 matches with one auto mode and 28 points in 3 out of 10 matches the 14 point mode is going to get you more points in the long run.
thats true… i agree, but who says you cant score 28 points in at least 8 of the 10 matches
We (546) are finally at the stage where we can create autonomous modes. Here’s one of the modes we created today. We realized that the 10 points for autonomous could easily be upset right after autonomous ended (although this one does require that no robots are in the way…). Please note, doubtful onlookers, that this is only one of our projected autonomous modes - we are planning on having up to 8.
Do you download differen’t codes for matches? How do you switch between codes?
that’s what the jumpers are for. Jumpers are basically close a connection (like a constantly closed limit switch) so you can tell if a digital input port is 1 or 0 (jumper in or no jumper). If you have 3 ports set up to check for jumpers, then you can have 8 different modes (4 gives you 16, etc. Binary)
I’m confused by this part of your post. What do you mean by “upset”? Thanks
Score two rings on the high goal and you have negated the points that the other alliance got because they won autonomous.
That is not a very useful way to view the situation, unless (as a consequence of expending effort to earn the bonus) the alliance that won the autonomous bonus unable to also do something useful in the time it takes the other alliance to score those two high-post rings.
If they (the autonomous winners) are doing something equally useful (something that will pay-off in 10 more points or in stopping a 10 point score by their opponents) in the time immediately after (and before) autonomous ends, then they are still ahead.
At the least they got their 10 point bonus without tying up two rings on a post. They have more rings available on the field.
In general, in game theory mathematics, you only “abandon” a scoring opportunity if doing so gives you a low-risk compensating advantage in a later stage of the game. Saying that two 5-point rings can tie the game does not describe an advantage conferred on your alliance by not trying to earn (i.e. abondoning) the auto bonus.
Blake
but if you are playing any robot “worth playing” they will capitalize on their ten point advantage and you will not be able to keep up.
Sorry for the confusion, here’s what we imagined: at the start of the match, our robot has either 1 or 2 rings preloaded (simply to get them on the field). In autonomous, we pick up (hopefully) 6 rings, depending on the placement of other robots at that time. If it looks like we’re going to be blocked, then we simply switch programs and do something else. However, if it works, then it shouldn’t matter if the other team managed to win autonomous (for 10 points), because when operated mode starts, we can already begin scoring. We’ll be a couple dozen seconds ahead of what we would have been if we had not picked up rings in autonomous. Getting those 6 rings on a high goal upsets (makes up for) the other team having all four goals (if they do indeed get them) and scoring just 2 more on another high goal upsets (makes up for) the points the other team won in autonomous. With tons of driver practice, it is quite easy to score on a moving goal, so we have confidence that we could score right after autonomous. Of course, there is a much larger amount of risk with this strategy, which is why several other autonomous modes will be available.
I think what corpralchee was trying to say was 2 of the 8 rings you score would negate the autonomous mode. The other 4 you put on the high goal at the same moment is another 20 points.
[EDIT]Whoops! Forgot to mention, our autonomous only takes 15 seconds. The other 5 could be used effectively…[/EDIT]
OK - But what I said below still holds. If you think that accumulating rings for roughly 20 seconds and putting them on posts for roughly 10 seconds is more worthwhile than any other use of the first 30 seconds of a match… Go for it.
But, I would be surprised if you couldn’t come up with a way to both give your alliance at least a 50/50 shot at the autonomous bonus, and be able to accumulate and/or hang the rings.
Don’t look at this as an either/or situation. Work hard to implement an autonomous strategy that accumulates rings, and then (perhaps in those last five seconds you mentioned?) bumps into a goal platform or the bar; or perhaps hangs those accumulated rings.
Blake
but what about the tems who are scoring more than just a ten point bonus in autonomous (ie: actually ringing some rings maybe two on the high goal) this gives them twenty points and now you are in a much deeper hole than you expected. Now you are probably thinking “this in no problem because we still have 11 whloe rings to score which would make up for all.” now normally I would agree, all up till the time where your opponent is gathering rings while you are frantically trying to get that pesky post to stay still. now you have finally gotten your rings on the first high goal, but to your suprise your opponet has gathered at least 6 six rings and is planning on evening the score. They ring all six of their rings. So now you there is a bit of a problem, there is no more room on the high goals and they are still up, count them, twenty points. and now all you have are three pointers and a couple of goals to try and own but yor opponet has the same opportunity.
I wrote all this to show you the importance of winning the autonomous mode, without it you will always be a step behind.