After deciding to compete back in May, we started brainstorming, designing,
and building robots. The robot we used in Mall of America was our second
generation robot.
Our first generation robot was quite simple, it focused on quick scoring and
short cycle time. However, it wasn't that consistent and it didn't have the
ability to take objects from the ground, which we thought was quite important.
So, we designed a second generation robot. The design was really unique and
bold, we were the first team in the world to build something like this. But
this also meant we were the first team to face the crazy amount of new
problems on the robot structure.
For example, the main problem we faced was the cup hitting our bottom lift
bracing. Theoretically, if the claw could grab onto the cup perfectly upright,
they wouldn't collide. But in reality, even the slightest offset causes the
jam. Although we developed an anti-jam process later, it drastically damaged
our scoring efficiency.
Going to the competition, we knew our robot wasn't as efficient as the others.
So the only way we could win was through clever strategies and smooth robot
driving.
In the 9 qualification matches, we won 5. Unfortunately, one of the win was
given to the opponents because we accidentally knocked down a single pin and
received a major violation.
We were also quite unlucky in the losing matches. In one match, we were pinned
on a goal for 39 seconds without the opponents getting a violation. In
another, our teammate had their battery unplugged in the middle of the match.
If we were lucky and won the two matches we could've won, and didn't get
disqualified on the winning match, we would've been at ranking 20. Instead, we
were ranked at 84 at the end of qualification matches.
Despite our best efforts of convincing teams to select us for elimination
matches, we were ultimately left unpicked. Frankly, we were not qualified
enough to reach the elimination rounds anyway.
Luckily, we didn't end up with nothing for this trip. The biggest treasure we
have gained was the increase in our team's visibility. Through the robot
reveal and posts on Discord servers, we really got quite a lot of people to
know us for the first time.
Also, we were honored to be interviewed by FUN Robotics Network. We were able
to briefly introduce our unique lift build and our robot simulator that helped
us designed our complicated robot code.
The idea of a robot simulator was born during the tedious robot building and
tuning period. I wanted to start practicing driving and writing the robot
program while the robot build was in progress. So I built the simulator that
could simulate the robot movement on the field, and more importantly, the lift
and arm movements. As a result, we had a functioning pose machine and control
algorithm for our lift and arm only a few days after the finish of our robot
build.
So, although it is true that we might've performed better with our first
generation robot, I don't regret the decision of competing with the second
generation robot. Without the unique design, we wouldn't have attracted nearly
as much attention as we did. Without the difficult robot tuning process, we
wouldn't have learned how to build a continuous lift well.
With this experience, I'm sure that we could build even better robots and win
in future tournaments. So, this event is only the beginning. We shall continue
working towards Worlds qualification.
