2007 FRC Season
Contents
The Game[edit]
The 2007 game was called Rack 'n Roll.
Game Manual on FIRST's website.
More details available on Wikipedia
Arena[edit]
The arena was a 27x54 foot carpeted field dominated by 'The Rack', a large metal contraption with three levels of hanging metal bars, with each level having 8 arms evenly spaced in an octagonal manner. Each arm (known as a 'spider leg') has space for two game pieces. Any more pieces placed on a spider leg beyond the first two are ignored for scoring purposes. At the beginning of the match, the rack is arbitrarily translated or rotated within three feet of the center of the field in order to give some randomness and to encourage autonomous modes that do not depend on dead-reckoning. At the top of the Rack are four green-colored lights above the 1, 3, 5, and 7 legs to aid in autonomous-mode tracking.
Scoring[edit]
Points were scored by hanging red and blue innertubes (called keepers, ringers, and spoilers) on the rack to form horizontal and vertical rows. A row was worth 2^n points, such that n was the number of tubes in a row. A single tube was worth 2 points, two tubes in a row were worth 4 points, 3 tubes in a row were worth 8 points, up to a full ring of 8 tubes worth 256 points. Special black tubes (called "spoilers") could be hung over opponents tubes to invalidate them. The maximum possible score from the rack was 596 points.
At the end of the match, 15 points were awarded for each robot elevated more than 4" from the carpet, and 30 points were awarded for each robot elevated more than 12" above the carpet.
Competition[edit]
In 2007 there were 3571 matches played across 38 events.
The 2007 world champions were teams 190, 987, and 177. Notably, the tiebreaker finals match on Einstein was decided when 179 pushed a tube onto 71's ramp, leaving them unable to climb.
A season highlight reel can be seen here.
| Team 190 | Team 987 | Team 177 |
|---|---|---|
| CD Thread |
Team Paradox in 2007[edit]
Team Accomplishments[edit]
Main Article: Team Paradox in 2007
Main Article: 2007 Robot (Mr. Fritz)
This was the team's rookie season. Notable events include recruiting our first members, finding our founding sponsors, building our first robot, attending our first event, and competing in (and winning) our first match.
2102's competitive record is below:
| Event | Quals Record | Rank | Alliance Selection | Playoffs Record | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Diego Regional | 5-5-0 | 24th of 46 | Not Picked | Not Picked | none |
Engineering Problems and Solutions[edit]
Picking Up Tubes[edit]
Although some teams used roller intakes in 2007, most teams acquired tubes with claws or grabbers as seen in all three championship winning robots. A notable exception were Einstein finalist alliance captains, team 233. Even less common were robots that used suction cups, or grabbed on the inside diameter of the tubes.
Lifting Tubes[edit]
Most robots in 2007 used arms to raise tubes up to the correct height, which was the common method at the time. Some teams had moved onto more complex mechanisms like elevators as seen in the 254/968 twins, or pink arms, as seen in 233.
| 2007 Arm | 2007 Elevator | 2007 Pink Arm |
|---|---|---|
| 254/968 Photo Album | 233 Pictures from 3847 |
Lifting Robots[edit]
The end-game challenge was accomplished by having one robot lift one or two of their partners. The common methods were ramps that robots could drive up, or flat platforms that could be easily driven onto which then push up linearly.
Ramps[edit]
Ramps can be seen here on 190's world champion robot. Polycarbonate plates were rigged onto the ends of the wings to keep robots from falling off, as seen in their picture above.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1gSoG1zM10
Platforms[edit]
Platforms can be seen here by team 1717:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0K7wCbmhXM
