If you will allow me, I would like to get up on my virtual soapbox for a
few moments and provide some generic advice. Some of you know me, some of
you don't. Let's just say, I have been associated with FIRST and FLL for a
while.

As I see some of the dialog on this listserve, I am secretly hoping that
all of the coaches and mentors are using this information to *teach *their
FLL teams. These are wonderful teaching opportunities for your teams. How
you interact with your teams makes all the difference. Using this thread as
an example, on one end of the spectrum, you can take the lessons learned
from the other coaches and just tell the team, "the way to fix the wheel
slipping is to do XYZ". If you do that, you will certainly shorten the team
meeting and get closer to a better working robot. On the far end of the
spectrum, you can mentor and facilitate the team, by leading them through a
series of questions: "how is it slipping?", "how long is it slipping?". You
can help them to do some research online to investigate the physics of
friction. What are the factors that influence friction? What modifications
can you do to the robot to reduce the probability of friction occurring
(ensure the wheels are clean, increase the surface area by using more or
different wheels, increase the weight directly over the wheels)? I am an
engineer and we do this all the time. You will be, without you knowing it,
teaching the children the basics of failure reporting and corrective action
(FRACA). Rarely does any engineering project work initially. There is
always an iterative process by which the product is incrementally improved
(OBTW, take a look a the Robot Design rubric:
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__firstinspiresst01.blob.core.windows.net_fll_2020_first-2Dlego-2Dleague-2Drubrics.pdf&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=k6Oa5GxfBPFMgGjb2r5QIoEOeBZs9xbNIpA0kLw_kFQ&m=GrWCmFk6wIHybr_NrbSn9O6LxYlwhUyTSp5B3BeZJU0&s=Lz3PDihFEtokcrSWcd6lyumhr3vvOj3WhVJy9V9974U&e=).
Notice "design process"?)

If your only goal as a coach is to win a FLL tournament, just go purchase a
trophy, get a cake and have a party now. If your goal is to develop your
team members (and I hope it is), use these learning moments to discuss with
your teams what is going on. If you are a rookie coach and not and
engineer, don't fret. It is OK to be vulnerable and tell the team you do
not know. Show them how to find the answers, do the research together. Give
them homework do do between meetings (I did this as a coach to get my team
to learn line following).

I have always told coaches that the main part of FLL is during the season
as you prepare for a tournament. The tournament should be a celebration of
what your teams have accomplished over the season. Please capture these
moments and use them to educate and develop your team members. What part
this teaching spectrum you choose will make a big difference in what your
team members will take away from your coaching.

<Getting off soapbox now>

Thank you for volunteering and have a great season!

Bill


On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 10:21 PM Jeff Borek <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Last year, my team had luck improving consistency in a similar situation
> by making sure the wheels were wiped clean (just with a dry rag) each time
> before a run.  Turned them into a little bit obsessive with the cleaning
> but definitely improved consistent start, turn, stop.
>
> On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 10:01 PM Amy Nichols <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> This actually seems to be problem with the mat, I believe. We’ve run the
>> same robot on multiple mats...and then other robots on this board. The
>> robots run on this board skid and slip along the mat mainly when the robot
>> turns...but who knows? Very time is a surprise. :) It really seems to be a
>> problem with the quality of the mat. At first, we thought it had to do with
>> how much it was used - possibly newer mats still had a glossy film on it or
>> something. But that doesn’t seem to be the case, as we ran the same robots
>> on a mat right out of the box without any of these issues. So...we don’t
>> know and were just wondering if it’s our sole mat or if others were having
>> trouble as well?
>>
>> Weird.
>>
>> Thanks much,
>> Amy
>>
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>> On Oct 7, 2019, at 9:02 PM, Skip Morrow <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>
>> First, verify that you have wheel slip. Film it in slo motion. Does it
>> happen every time? Does setting a slower speed help? Going from zero to 100
>> in a blink is pretty much always going to cause some slip. Especially if
>> you have big wheels. Also, is your robot balanced? Maybe you have a heavy
>> attachment on one side? That can throw things off by taking a lot of weight
>> off of one wheel which can cause it to slip more easily. Finally, for a
>> really advanced solution you can try and write an acceleration myblock.
>> Otherwise, the only solutions are to ensure your robot is balanced, and use
>> slower speeds.
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 8:26 PM Alicia A. Strahan <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Accelerating from start.  Wheels spin but it doesn’t grip on the mat.
>>> Doesn’t happen every time but throws off the robot just enough to mess up
>>> the mission.
>>>
>>> Get Outlook for iOS
>>> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__aka.ms_o0ukef&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=k6Oa5GxfBPFMgGjb2r5QIoEOeBZs9xbNIpA0kLw_kFQ&m=thvGt952Yyu0iqagWEo60249q5tBHIFX2KClcuP3KmM&s=zmPPxGnUtUwh1QX3eM52aiobdS7XvXBlMYeN07OknQI&e=>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* Skip Morrow <[log in to unmask]>
>>> *Sent:* Monday, October 7, 2019 8:04:22 PM
>>> *To:* Alicia A. Strahan <[log in to unmask]>
>>> *Cc:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>>> *Subject:* Re: [VADCFLL-L] Robot skidding on board
>>>
>>> What do you guys mean by "skidding"? When I think of skidding, I think
>>> of putting on the brakes, locking up my tires, and screeching to a stop.
>>> That obviously doesn't apply here.
>>>
>>> Are you talking about a general loss of traction, leading to robot
>>> inaccuracy? If so, are we talking mostly during turns? Or accelerating from
>>> a dead stop?
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 7, 2019 at 3:22 PM Alicia A. Strahan <[log in to unmask]>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> We have noticed a problem as well.  It does not happen every time and
>>>> does not happen when we run the code on a different surface like the
>>>> floor.
>>>>
>>>> *Alicia Strahan*
>>>> STEM Lab Teacher
>>>> Rosa Parks Elementary School
>>>>
>>>> ------------------------------
>>>> *From:* First Lego League in Virginia and DC <
>>>> [log in to unmask]> on behalf of Alina Marston <
>>>> [log in to unmask]>
>>>> *Sent:* Monday, October 7, 2019 3:01 PM
>>>> *To:* [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
>>>> *Subject:* [VADCFLL-L] Robot skidding on board
>>>>
>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>
>>>>   My team is having trouble with our robot wheels skidding on our
>>>> board. My team has tested their robot on two other boards and the robot's
>>>> wheels do not skid when turning on the other two boards, but they do skid
>>>> when they turn on ours. We had another team test their robot and programs
>>>> on our board last week and their wheels skidded also when running on our
>>>> board. In all, we've tested three other robots on the other two boards and
>>>> none of them skid like on ours at home. Has anyone else had this problem?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks!
>>>> Alina Marston
>>>> The Magically Energized Lightning Waffle Bunnies
>>>>
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