My old FLL team figured out it was never programming the missions or coming
up with amazing attachments that killed their score, it was *the switching*.
 It was having 1 attachment do one mission, and then take it off and put on
the next attachment that resulted in lower robot game scores.  Their best
score in their 3 years was the year they figured out to adapt 2 attachments
to participate in 8 missions :)

That and always trying to start from one place in base (as much as possible
anyway). I know it's probably too late to help a lot of teams with that
tip, but the more missions you have that start in one place, the better the
chance that the operator will get it right and the robot will hit it's
target, as just a few degrees off in a mid-field mission can be disastrous
at the wrong angle. Sensors can greatly aid in correcting for small errors,
but hooking or slicing the robot when placing it down may be difficult to
compensate for since it can miss its sensor's mark.  Practice here does
make perfect!  It's nice when teams keep track of whether a mission worked
well or not.  Understanding the percentages of achievement right before a
tournament can take the guesswork out of what missions to run on the table
in a time crunch.

If you can't start in one place, at least have the team do themselves a
favor and don't float the robot in the base. Have it start off a wall, or
make a lego ruler to create the angle you need and be consistent with the
starts each time.  The increase in accuracy from starting off a wall is
significantly higher than floating "the back wheel off the side of the M",
or "having to count 7 dashes in the left side base to line up the back
wheel". Just don't.  I noticed with my team that one operator would
complain about a mission* never *working, but put a different operator down
there to start it off and it was a 95% accurate program. Our first year was
fraught with us blaming the robot for what turned out to operator error
that would have been solved by following this simple best practice "start
rule".

  If you are seriously considering that two chassis concept, have the kids
do several runs (like 5-8) with and without chassis changes and see what
their final score would be in a timed match.   I recommend not adding any
new programs the week before competition; Perfect programming, but no new
ones. Practicing our robot game starts and just getting lost of face time
with the game we were going to run at competition, we learned it made for a
much higher score!
Regards,
Brandy
FTC 6193



On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Bdh612-ess <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> My team considered that, but besides the complexity issue, we worried
> about the transition time and robot bloat issues in trying to provide the
> switch-ability mechanism.
>
> That said, I'd live to see the video, could you post a link?
>
> Brian
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Oct 7, 2013, at 9:07 AM, Alex <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Answer for question two.
>
> There is a team that does the multiple chassis plan. The motors and
> programmable brick are moved.
>
> There are youtube videos that show them switching between missions.
>
>
> On 2013-10-07 07:46, Larry Landsberg wrote:
>
> 2 separate questions. Hoping for 2 separate answers.
>
> 1. Can you use multiple robots during the tournament, ie 1 robot (EVS) for the first mission we attempt then a second robot (NXT ) for the next mission we attempt?
>
> 2. Can we have two different chassis but 1 brick that we switch between chassis during the tournament?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Larry
>
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