Recently there have been discussions about how to possibly get AWP solo for over under season. In many tournaments there will be a majority of teams that won’t be able to accomplish or have troubles with accomplishing the tasks during autonomous period. But since the rule stated double zoning is not allowed during autonomous period, so it’s impossible to go to the other side and score the triball in the goal since it’s against the rules. Because the maximum size limit is 36 inches (less than a metre), so it’s also impossible to make an FTC type arm and place the triball in the other side. The only option left would be shooting the triball into the goal, but GrantCox have already said it’s nearly impossible to do cross court shoots. So does anyone have any ideas or any suggestions about possible ways to get AWP solo?
with tuning, and some luck, it could be possible. only 2 corners have to be in, so if you could launch it hard, and get a lucky bounce, you could score it.
Score preloaded alliance triball in opposing alliance’s goal. (2s)
Turn and intake your match load. (3s)
Drive to your alliance’s goal and score (7s)
Drive into your elevation bar. (2s)
Totally doable.
Everything else is possible part from the first one, how could you possibly shoot the triball into the allaince’s goal if you can hardly throw it inside
You can’t cross in to the opponent offensive zone… Each robot effectively has a quarter of the field. Overall, I’d say that you could just shoot as many acorns as in reach in the hope that one finds its way in.
This makes some sense, but the two balls on the dividing line will be hard to access and you need one to touch the bar…so you can only be certain of getting one ball to try for a luck shot.
1 x ball between offensive zones.
1 x ball in match load zone
1 x preload
(+ 2 x uncertain ones on dividing line)
33% accuracy should be enough, and that is not too hard.
Note the rules for an Autonomous Win Point:
You need to score an Alliance Triball in the Alliance’s own Goal. You get one of those as a preload, and the other one is a preload for your alliance partner. If you are going to get a solo AWP, you will need to start on the defensive side of the field and you will need to launch your triball into your goal on the opposite side of the field. My guess is a 1/1000 shot.
This would not complete AWP.
You need an alliance colored triball (your preloads) scored in your alliance colored goal.
Even though alliance triballs contribute points regardless of where they are scored, to obtain AWP it needs to be in your alliance goal.
AWP tasks:
It certainly is. I just got the field set up today and solo AWP is possible yet extremely improbable. There are 2 ways you can get tribals into the goals.
-
Throw it extremely hard. But you have to be very accurate and we are talking more force than is took to do triple shots in auton last year. The mechanisms that did this would need a lot of power and a low arc. Unlikely to be usefull outside of this one task.
-
Gently roll. This method doesn’t work well either. You need to throw the tribals very gently. Like they barely make it too the goal. And hope that they don’t randomly roll to the side which they sometimes do. The top of the tribal never makes it in the goal but if you get the orientation lucky then 2 other corners can be under the goal. This mechanism would probably not have enough force to be viable in a match as a launcher and the arc needs to be really low to not get any bounce.
Either way, I was getting around 5% accuracy. So if you want solo AWP you need to heavily build your robot around it and fire as many shots as possible.
Grant Cox also thought that it would be impossible to make 3000 RPM cartridgeless motors using only vex-legal parts last year. Just because someone says something is impossible, does not make it so.
Now wait a minute… the only reason that the triball (or whatever you want to call it) has to be shot is because of double-zoning. But it’s not double-zoning if you or your alliance partner is contacting the long barrier. So maybe there’s a way to cross most of the way and have something barely touching the barrier with expansion. Then the “ball” would only have to cross 12" on it’s own. A long trek to be sure, but nothing requiring shooting, just a powerful rolling intake or rolling puncher.
On the note of double-zoning avoidance via center barrier…
Bad idea, but possible:
Have your alliance partner not move under their own power, but extend far enough to grab them and pull them to contact the center barrier and then score on that side of the field. Looks like it would be just about 34" of reach to grab them… well withing the 36" limit.
Step 1: Intake and score match load
Step 2: Return to and intake preload left behind initially
Step 3: Cross barrier but remain touching it
Step 4: Extend, grab alliance partner, pull them back to barrier
Step 5: Score alliance triball in low goal
Step 6: Contact elevation bar
Step 7: Realize that this is just a humorous 2 am thought and would never really work
Step 8: Realize that 2 am thoughts are meta
Step 9: Execute auton and get win point every match at the cost of arguing with every ref within a 50 mile radius
I accidentally a word. Thanks!
Please refer to the game manual for rules during autonomous:
The game manual doesn’t say anything about double-zoning in autonomous, but it does say that you can’t contact the foam tiles in the opposite Offensive Zone.
Yep, totally forgot about that. Thanks for the correction. It’s been a couple weeks since I’ve read through it and there’s a lot on my mind. Definitely should have double checked that one. My disappointment is acute; that would have been awesome.
I somehow did not read that last phrase. Not being able to carry AWP is awful. You are 100% at the mercy of your teammate to just drive forward and push their alliance triball into the goal.
I really don’t like that autonomous faults don’t reward your partner with an AP (if they would have earned it).
- If your qualification partner gets you DQd, but you still carried and would have won, then you get the W.
- If your qualification partner faults during Auton or just doesn’t move at all, you still had a chance to solo the AWP the last two games. This made sure that top teams capable of AWP, could always be above less good teams in the rankings even with a rare loss or two, because of all the AWPs.
So… why? Why force a team to rely on the auton programming of their alliance partner for this?
Contact the foam tiles, hmm, what if we just build a mech that balances us over the long bar, and we could then take a shot, this would not break any rules from what I have seen, all we need is a team crazy enough to do it.
I am in VIQRC so please don’t flame me if there is something that says you cannot do this I have read that manual but just a fast read-through.
I rather like this. It forces collaboration between teams, especially teams that consider themselves “high performing” to those they consider “less capable”. Spending 30-60 minutes at a comp, helping your future alliance partners write a simple “drive forward” auton to do something that benefits both you and them, seems very desireable from an overall VRC perspective.
Much as VRC seems to be about robots, VRC is really about people.
I would agree, but there is no time to do this during a competition (at least for my team). Before alliance selection teams already have to juggle skills, judging interviews, normal matches, scouting, fixing auto programs which inevitably break, and maintaining the robot. There’s just no time to spend an hour working on other team’s auto programs and still be able to do all the other parts of the competition as well as possible.
However, I don’t think no solo AWP is the end of the world. It just means teams who can’t get AWP are (almost) guaranteed to be lower on the rankings then teams of the same skill level who can do AWP. This is because teams who can’t do AWP will never get it, and never getting it is worse then sometimes getting it. Teams with AWP programs could still get unlucky though, but I think this will just result in teams who did get lucky paying less attention to rankings in alliance selection and picking teams which are lower down.
Time management is a real thing, for sure. That said, this seems to be a form of excuse-making. In my experience, there is plenty of time for a well-prepared team to have time to talk with teams after inspection, during lunch, etc. to spend 5-10 minutes with a team to get them a very basic “move forward” auton. My estimate of an “hour per competition” assumed every partner a team has at the comp (probably 6-8) didn’t have an auton.
I disagree with this. This year’s AWP will reward teams who are well-prepared and are good teammates. Of the individual requirements for getting the AWP, probably the most challenging is removing the triball from the field tile behind the diagonal barrier. Teams that can do that, and help their less-capable teammates write a basic auton will be rewarded. Teams that can remove the triball but don’t check on their teammates’ capabilities will be subject to RNGesus of what their teammates can do.
Moral of the story - teams that don’t leave things to chance should continue to do well.