Lessons Learned
Our robot ended up making it to the second round. For the first round our robot went to both the 3 and the 5 coin depository, but missed both drops. It landed one coin on the edge of the 3 coin depository, which won us the round. During the second round we managed to get 4 coins in the 5 coin depository and 7 coins in the 8 coin depository, which lost against a full 3 out of 3 coins in the last depository from the other team. It was heartbreaking. That round was ours. But regardless, the team we barely lost to went on to get second in the tournament, so it was good to know that our robot was able to hold its own with the best.
Our group definitely learned a lot throughout this project. Below is an abridged version of the big picture lessons we learned.
Our group definitely learned a lot throughout this project. Below is an abridged version of the big picture lessons we learned.
- The Importance of Simplicity. Simplicity is something admirable in a design like this. The simplest solution really does seem to be the best. They are almost always more clever, more reliable, and a generally better solution.
- Good software can make up for more basic hardware. We included a single IR sensor, but thanks to some sophisticated code, we were still able to get more than enough information to accomplish the task.
- Testing Testing Testing Testing.
- It's tempting to try to start building as soon as possible, however, be sure to spend enough time in the design phase. Otherwise, it can be really easy to make large mistakes that will set you back.
- On the other hand, don't overthink the design too much. It can inhibit some of the innovation that will come from a very off the cuff solution that you cup up with.
- Stress an appropriate amount. Too much and you wont be productive, but too little and you wont have the frantic, aggressive mentality of someone who needs to rapidly solve problems.
Final Videos of the Tournament
Below are some videos of our final runs. First off is the video of our first time actually running the robot in a competitive setting, when we beat the brick. Unfortunately the video isn't great, but you can still see the general robot working. You can also however see some pretty major flaws. It wasn't too efficient at this point, and left a lot to be desired.
It's really easy to hear how emotionally invested into the project Charlie and Brad were when doing this. But it worked! It was exciting. We spent the weekend debugging the code and ended up with a pretty good working model of what we wanted our robot to do. All that was left was the big day! Below is a video of our first round in the tournament.
As you can see from the video, this round was not our best. The main reason for this was because a crowd member accidentally pressed the button and dispensed a coin before we started. We were therefore off in our button pressing. Nevertheless, we managed to get enough coins in to win the round. This brought us to our second round.
This round was our Magnum Opus. It was beautiful. Our robot worked perfectly. We were quick, efficient, and were able to hit two exchanges before the time limit. Unfortunately, this was also the round that broke our teams hearts. We were able to get two exchanges, however, because two coins dropped through the cracks, we were a single coin short on both the 5 and the 8 exchanges. We scored 4/5 and 7/8 on these two, as can be seen in the video. Nevertheless, we did great, and we were very proud of our robot. It worked great.