This year's competition has been a mixed bag for us, with the robot generally performing well, but limited by a selection of minor issues and what can only be best described as a run of bad luck. However we are very pleased to say we also brought home the FRC NYC Regional Website Award with us.
Day 1 - Practices
Unfortunately we started the day with many issues. We were able to quickly uncrate and unbag the robot and start the inspection process, but software deployment issues before the robot ship meant we spent most of the morning deploying new code to the robot. Various issues also cropped up in the process with changes that had been made to the code after the robot had shipped, which were significant enough to stop the robot from functioning. The main problem was later found to be the compressors accidentally being started twice, which caused them to fail. Although we tried to participate in early practice runs, the robot did not drive as expected. We later discovered that the combination of the robots Wi-Fi bridge not functioning as intended, out of date driver software on the drive netbook and a compatibility issue with the British localisation settings on the netbook were responsible for the robot not driving during practice runs. Later in the day once we had overcome these issues we were able to participate successfully.
Day 2 - Competition Seeding
The official start of the competition saw some success for us. The robot prooved very effective at placing game pieces on the first 2 rows during our matches. However at this stage we were not deploying the minibot as it had not been fully tested and the robot did not have autonomous functionality. Despite the robot's success at scoring, our position on the scoreboard was pushed down by the alliances we were placed in. Many of the matches we played in were also unfortunately affected by Wi-Fi communication issues between the robots and FIRST's arena management system. We finished the day ranking in the middle of the score board and as winners of the Website Award.
Day 3 - Final Rounds
The last day was very troublesome for us, with communication issues on the field continuing to affect the robots performance. During one match a communication failure meant the robot did not respond to any of our commands to reposition the arm, preventing it from placing game pieces. During another match the FIRST Driver Station software on our netbook crashed, preventing the robot from taking part in that match, with many other robots also sitting out due to other similar computer and communication issues. This meant we dropped to a low position on the rankings. Despite this we deployed autonomous code to the robot, which provided it with the basic ability to attempt to pick up and place a game piece. We also made several attempts at deploying the minibot, however alignment errors meant it did not deploy successfully. Following this, we were not selected to be in the alliances for the final rounds.
Although we are disappointed with the issues we had and our final competition position, which was 61st out of 66 teams, the atmosphere at the competition was great, with many teams wanting to introduce themselves to us. We had a hugely enjoyable time at the competition and in New York, and look forward to returning next year.
