FIRST Robotics 2018 - Practice, Practice.....

Instead of doing two full on tournaments this year (money was a bit tight) we are going all in for one event.  But to get ready we also did a practice event on Saturday.  These tend to be somewhat improvised, all the arena parts are mocked up in plywood and the last time we did one of these there were a bunch of control system issues.  But as a way to see what you have as a robot - and what other teams you will be facing have - it has merit.

Pictures and thoughts....

Here's our robot - whose semi official name is "Clamps" in its starting configuration.

The fabric covered box has to be put into place on the field.  This requires that there be pneumatic pressure available.  One of the things you can do in a practice event is work on the timing of your pre match procedures....how long will pre-pressurized tanks stay above minimal limits to be effective?

The matches consist of three robots on each side, or "alliance" trying to accomplish their goals while preventing the activities of the robots from the other end of the field. The robots should be in red and blue color schemes but for a practice event attire is rather casual.

There actually is some science and engineering involved.  Here our software kids work out the equations to tweak our autonomous programming.  Now, if those other clumsy robots would just stay out of our way!

Practice events are valuable for drivers and software but perhaps even more so for the pit crew.  Our first edition of the pit check list....match times, colors for each match, starting positions.  Also a list of things that must be done between each match.  One kid tried to tell me that "Someone else checked that battery!".  Nope, check it again.  It was of course good.

The team and robot were so solid that after a while we just started getting into the "Fill Line" after each match.  As robots drop out due to mechanical issues there are often matches where the required three per side can't be rounded up.  No problem, we were ready.  Ten matches in 7 hours, about as much as a full day and a half official tournament.  Nothing bad broke but we found enough small tweaks to keep us busy for our last two build sessions.  

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