1/5/2014 Day 1: Strategy and Game Analysis

Today consisted of entirely game analysis, followed by a brief 20 minute break and intense strategy discussion.  Overall, the game seemed simple and easy on the surface, but it is interesting for its strategy elements.

For a decent portion of this time, we discussed the general rules, and created a list of big parts of the game, big ones being how to score and how much each way is worth, and lack of safe zones, which is different from the past three years.  As a reminder:

Action	Base	AUTO (=Base+5)	AUTO & HOT (=Base+AUTO+5)	1 ASSIST (=Base+0)	2 ASSIST (=Base+10)	3 ASSIST (=Base+30)
LOW GOAL	1	6	11	1	11	31
HIGH GOAL	10	15	20	10	20	40
TRUSS	10
Mobility		5
CATCH	10

From the general scoring possibilities, it would seem assists are wanted and needed.  This means a floor intake is required, giving the robot the ability to pick up a missed ball or floor passes.  Also, as high goal and truss points are next to assists in terms of scoring points, some sort of launcher would also be required.  In addition to those, the ability to catch would be nice, but can be somewhat of a bonus, and should not affect the way the robots play the game.

By the end of the game analysis, we wrote out all possible strategies and abilities and knocked off the one's thought to be useless (playing in the goalie zone).  As a result, a requirements list was created for features/abilities of the robot.

Num.	Description	Priority	Performance
0	Win	Must	Yes
1	Drive	Must	Speed - ~10 actual fps Force - a lot
2	Omnidirectional	None	Does not exist
3	Launch ball	Must	Height - 100” Accuracy - 95%-100% Spin - no
4	Floor pickup	Must	Speed - <= 1sec Offset - ~50% ball diam. On-the-fly pickup - yes
5	Remove ball (no launch, no bounce)	Must	Time - <= 1 sec Speed - >= 5fps Control length - <= 50% ball diam.
6	Human player reception	Must	Distance - 5 to 10 feet Horizontal disp - +/- 8” Accuracy - 100%
7	Herding mechanism	Desired	Works. Not a driving feature

We were now set for the rest of the conceptual design process, moving toward the preliminary design/prototyping phase.

Approximate times of working: 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM (Half hour of breaks)

1/4/2014 Day 0: 2014 Kickoff!!! Aerial Assist

Today, we (all teams) learned about this year's FIRST game, Aerial Assist.  Almost as soon as it came up, this year's manual password (3Zones2Goals1Alliance!) unlocked the game manuals.  This game manual contains all restrictions and new constants for previous variables of the Engineering Design Process.  Much like the past years, the weight limit is 120 pounds and time limit is 45 days, with Day 1 on the 5th of January (Sunday) and Day 45 on the 18th of February (Tuesday), as well as a $4000 dollar limit on parts on the robot.  Unlike past years, the dimensions restrictions are now a frame perimeter of 112 inches and 5 feet tall.

Today was the beginning of our conceptual design and preparation.  We (FRC Team 4183, The Bit Buckets) attended a design meeting with Team 842 (Falcon Robotics from Carl Hayden High School) and Team 4962 (Knight Tech Robotics from Metro Tech High School), in which our three teams discussed rules and possibilities as well as strategy.  Most importantly, though, we discussed basic requirements and standards for the robots.  Our three teams decided the assists will be what matters most, and should get the most points.  This means there is not much difference between high and low goals.  Also, as there are no "safe zones" this year, shooting may be a little more difficult, making the 1 point low goal very valuable.  General strategy seems similar to soccer in some ways, and volleyball in others.

The Bit Buckets have decided the abilities to catch a ball, pick up a ball from the floor, pass a ball, and scoring for both the high and low goals are needed capabilities for our robot.  This means we will need some sort of floor intake to pick up the ball from the floor and spit it out to someone else, an open top to let the ball fall in, and a catapult to shoot the ball into the high goal.

Through the design meeting, we began and now have a good idea of the requirements and strategy parts of the conceptual design process.

Approximate times of working: 8:00 AM - 2:00 PM (1 hour break in between)

1/4/2014 The 2014 Game Manual: Aerial Assist!

The 2014 Game Manual: Aerial Assist is the entire set of rules for this year's game, from technical parts of the game to technical parts of the robots to technical parts of the awards.  While the rules of this game are fairly lengthy, it can be briefly summarized, as it is in this game animation, and will be explained in this blog post.

This year's game is played on a 54'x25' field, split evenly into a red zone, white zone, and blue zone, and is played with 2' diameter balls, colored red or blue for each alliance.  Other than autonomous mode, alliances only have one ball at a time to try to score during the match.  There are two high goals spanning 11' across the wall, which are 37" tall and 82" above the ground with 1' of separation between.  The low goals in the corners are 32" wooden cubes with open faces.  Scoring in the high goal is worth 10 points, while scoring in the low goal is worth 1.  Bisecting the length of the field is a "truss", with its bottom at 5'2" and its top at 6'2".  If a ball is thrown over the truss, 10 points are scored by the throwing alliance.  If a robot on the same team catches the ball, the alliance scores an extra bonus 10 points.

The biggest part of this game though is the assist factor.  As suggested, this game gives bonus points for passing to your own team.  For a one robot cycle, where only one robot has the ball and just runs over and shoots it, there are no bonus points.  For a two robot cycle, where two robots "possess" the ball before scoring, 10 bonus points are added when the ball is scored.  For a three robot cycle though, where all three robots "possess" the ball before scoring, 30 bonus points are added when the ball is scored.  This poses the huge strategy question of what strategy is most efficient in terms of points per time.

In addition to the drivers, coach, and robot, there are human players, one from each team on the alliance.  These human players are the ones that feed the ball back into the field, can serve as something to pass to to redirect the ball, and can prevent the ball from exiting the field, but cannot interact with anything within the field perimeter, and cannot score.

In terms of rules for robots, robots can only be 5' tall unless they are contacting their goalie zone, in which case they can have an unlimited height, but the area above 5' tall must fit within an infinite 6" diameter cylinder.  The weight is the same as recent previous years, at 120 pounds, and the frame perimeter must be less than 112".  While there is this restricting frame perimeter, the robot can extend to 20" outside its frame perimeter as soon as the match starts.

For normal rules of the game, there are not too many, but the few have major consequences.  Teams may absolutely not intentionally touch or possess the opposing alliance's ball, otherwise they will be called for a 50 point foul.  Also, cycles begin as soon as the last ball for an alliance in autonomous is scored, which is when assists and truss points can begin to be scored.  And, of course, as the goal is not destruction but cooperation and fun, no structures for intentionally harming other robots.

That is a basic summary of the restrictions and building blocks for the conceptual design process for this year's game, and what I will be working around for my project.

Posts Notification/Set Up

As my project this year started at the beginning of January, since the FIRST Robotics Competition Build season began at the beginning of January, many of my posts will be from January up until now, but will have a posting date far later than the actual day (due to the project period and blogs opening now at the end of January rather than the beginning).  This means I will title posts based on day number, day, and big things that happened germane to my project.  Posts will be made daily throughout the build season, and slightly less often after build season ends.