Lynbrook RoboticsFIRST Robotics Team #846

Day 3 of SVR started with a tough match for us. Working with our fellow FUSHD school, Fremont High School, team 3501, we were unable to beat team 3256, the Warriorborgs. We won our last qualifying match though, putting us into 12th seed.

When alliance selection came around, the top teams kept picking each other and we moved up to 7th seed. Then team 852, our next door neighbors in the pits, asked us to join their alliance, which we enthusiastically accepted. Our last pick for alliance mates was team 840, Aragon High School’s Robotics team. Our alliance strategy was that team 840 would feed us balls during hybrid mode so we can score 4 balls into the top hoop, earning 24 points. Then, during tele-op, we would score balls with team 852 while team 840 played defense. At the end of the match, we would double balance with team 852 on the alliance bridge.

Our quarterfinal matches came up quickly and we were excited for more action. Our first quarterfinal match was a close one; we lost 41-46 to team 1538 (the Holy Cows from San Diego), team 1280 and team 2035. If we didn’t miss those few balls during hybrid mode, I think we could have won that match.

Our second quarterfinal match, I have no words to describe what I felt. Our 2CAN which controls pretty much everything on our robot did not turn on properly and therefore we were not able to move. Without our robot working, our alliance lost 16-52. Many of our team members were very disappointed in this match, but unfortunately, there was no rule that allowed us to replay that match.

Overall, we did a great job over the past few days. We were quarterfinalists and won the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation. We were able to show friends, family, the judges, and other teams our amazing robot. I’m proud of our team and what we have accomplished.

At 8:00 in the morning, the pit crew hit the event knowing that with our robot’s communication issues solved, we would be playing very well. We anticipated a smooth day, and at first our anticipations were proving to be correct. We won our first two matches easily, with extremely consistent high goal fender shooting and a great autonomous.

Then, we took two extremely close losses against 1868 (NASA Ames/Space Cookies) and 1538 (The Holy Cows from San Diego) in succession. We suddenly began missing a few shots and not getting autonomous as consistently, contributing to those two losses. However, our knowledgeable drive team took advantage of the qualification points system to ensure that we would continue to maintain our ranking. In FIRST, 2 Qualification Points are assigned for a win, 1 for a tie, and 0 for a loss. However, in addition, 2 Qualification Points are also assigned for balancing the middle white “Coopertition” (not cooperation) bridge with a team from the opposing alliance – the equivalent of winning the match.

So when Lynbrook Robotics ended the day with a 5-3-0 Record (an additional loss due to our alliance partners racking up a full 18 points in penalties, much to our dismay), we maintained the high rank of 7th out of 50 teams, in the top 8 seeds that get to pick alliances.

The robot is working without comm issues as per the usual. The pit crew intends to do some adjustments tomorrow to keep the robot hardware working smoothly. For our shooter, re-tuning returned us to our original consistent state, so we will be playing great during the qualifications and eliminations! Also, key tracking and auto-aim continue to be developed (we had a great test run earlier today) – I do believe that we will be one of few auto-aiming teams to play on Saturday, and that will be what makes us all the more attractive than we already are to the higher seeded teams.

When I was in the pit before the Awards Ceremony today, I saw a judge standing by the side of the pit. I walked up and asked him if he had any questions about our robot. He replied with these exact words:

“No, it’s all right. We’ve already decided who’s getting awards. I just wanted to come over and see what a good team looks like.”

I responded with customary modesty. “We are?”

We ended up receiving the Innovation in Control Award sponsored by Rockwell Automation. This was awarded for all the different and highly advanced software features of our robot, so a huge shout-out to the Software Group! The judges have consistently been impressed by how much we have to talk about when it comes to our robot, and the entire pit crew also deserves a shout out for presenting our robot’s noteworthy and rare functions so well to the judges.

Two of our alumni (Haochuan and Karthik), and several members of the scouting/drive/pit crew went out for Pearl Milk Tea after the event ended and discussed picks for tomorrow. While we have not nailed down an entire picklist, we’ve identified several teams that we would be extremely happy to have as 1st/2nd picks for our alliance. The disparity between winning teams and merely good teams is extremely large this year, so we should not have much trouble filling up the rest of the 24 team list we will have extremely quickly.

Tomorrow, we must continue to scout, however. Last year, we were not a high seed at this time . . . but on Saturday morning, we finally got our robot working and were noticed quickly for our skills. We know such things happen – we cannot afford to miss any late performers.

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Today, Lynbrook Robotics finished ranked 7th at Silicon Valley Regional, having demonstrated a truly exceptional robot despite not being undefeated. It is a true testament to the strength of the competition here that no team, not even the highest ranked (currently Mountain View, 971), escaped today undefeated.

We are also continuing to impress everyone with the marvel of engineering that is our robot. The judges just kept coming by, admiring our robot and the skill by which the pit crew was able to explain the great engineering behind it. Bellarmine continues to tell me that the bungee cords on our hopper intake are the greatest thing they’ve ever seen. We have big friends.

Tomorrow, we have 2 qualification matches that we can pull victories on. As a top seed, I am confident that we will be able to choose our own fate at alliance selection and during the eliminations.

Today, the pit crew members hit the event at 8:30 in the morning and promptly rearranged our crates and supplies into a comfortable working environment that would be our home for the next few days. After getting the pit set up and our judge’s material close at hand, we un-bagged the robot, passed inspection after a bit of filing on sharp corners, and hit up the practice field as soon as the field began to operate. We simply hoped that the NYC’s comm problems were a fluke and that SVR would work just fine.

The two matches revealed that our problems were cut out for us. Even sitting on the field without moving, we were losing communications for approximately 10 seconds at a time, several times during matches. This was behavior very similar to NYC’s. Disabling all functions on our code did not turn up better results. We swapped out the new 2CAN for an older version . . . and when that failed to work . . . we took a further act of increasing desperation by mounted a second Power Distribution Board to form the new “Second Custom 40 Amp Circuit.” Then, we took the field with default code.

We didn’t lose comms! It was amazing. Encouraged, we loaded our regular code and proceeded to run two seamless matches. The team was overjoyed . . . but of course this wasn’t an acceptable solution. Extra Power Distribution Boards . . . Such things are illegal, no matter what I have to say about it, sadly.

So, we replaced the power distribution board, and are waiting to see whether the “fix” that happened today and the way we made it conform to the rules of the game will hold through the competition. Tomorrow should be good!

Match Performance: We are consistently scoring 12 pts. in autonomous. Ball pickup using the drop down ball collector is working extremely well. We are continuing to be very consistent scoring into the middle goal during tele-op period. Brian has gotten very good at lining up with the bridge and balancing right at the buzzer. We’ll make it a point to allocate ourselves more time for that.

Key tracking and auto-aim are due to be tested and tuned more tomorrow. A bit more hardware tuning and we will be able to fire high at the fender, a useful skill to have before elimination matches.