We took 2nd!

We placed 2nd and got a silver medal for Defconbots at Robogames 2009.






Here's the final round (below) - it came down to us versus Team Yuzhik again like last year. They did really well and were very accurate.

We did have a strength that Team Yuzhik didn't, but unfortunately we didn't have an opportunity to exploit it. Our system was very adaptable to quick calibration and changing conditions (because we have two cameras). Earlier in the day we noticed that Team Yuzhik's turret was extremely sensitive to calibration. Their gun was so accurate that if the calibration was even slightly off there was no hope of hitting a target if it didn't agree with the calibration the first time. This didn't come into play, however, because the competition did not require that the guns be moved and re-calibrated.

The targets were very springy and kept popping back up - it's sort of funny. Our final time was about 2.6 seconds per target. We're the gun on the right.

On the way to Robogames

Our best score this week was 17.9 seconds (that's 1.2 seconds per target).

Here's a 23 second run I caught on tape:


Now we're on our way to Robogames!

We ran out of bullets!

It's a mad dash today to pick up more bullets as we ran out over the weekend. Apparently our gun is pretty particular about its bullets and if they're not shiny they'll jam.

We increased the resolution of the mounted camera 4 times this weekend as we attempted to get tighter and more calibrated control. Our best times (listed below) got down to 2.27 seconds per target! Consistency still needs some work.

In the first time below, note that there were 28 attempts on the 15 targets. This conceals another layer of failure in that each attempt includes the initial movement (and a fire), and sometimes a subsequent correction movement (and a fire). So there were 28 initial fires, then 13 corrections and fires, for 41 total. That leaves 36% accuracy.

The second attempt is much worse (but obviously shot with much higher frequency) as it attempted 111 times in order to knock down the 15 targets. That's 14% accuracy. If we bring that up, we'll benefit from drastically reduced times.

scott@dell-desktop:~/playeratat/log$ perl times.pl < playeratat-20090607135034.log
Description , Count, Time (ms), Avg (ms)
TOTAL , 1, 34046, 34046
auto_target:acquire_targets , 28, 0, 0
auto_target:acquire_targets_mounted , 71, 4, 0
auto_target:fire_mounted , 13, 2880, 221
auto_target:fire_mounted_update , 28, 1592, 56
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_mounted , 28, 0, 0
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_static , 28, 8, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target , 28, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target_mounted , 71, 1, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted , 71, 4769, 67
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted_update , 71, 17667, 248
auto_target:move_to_target_static , 28, 2875, 102
auto_target:move_to_target_static_update , 28, 1265, 45
auto_target:static_fire , 28, 6078, 217
auto_target:target_attempt , 28, 38183, 1363

scott@dell-desktop:~/playeratat/log$ perl times.pl < playeratat-20090607140427.log
Description , Count, Time (ms), Avg (ms)
TOTAL , 1, 37764, 37764
auto_target:acquire_targets , 75, 0, 0
auto_target:acquire_targets_mounted , 140, 9, 0
auto_target:fire_mounted , 36, 8317, 231
auto_target:fire_mounted_update , 75, 3806, 50
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_mounted , 75, 0, 0
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_static , 75, 4, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target , 75, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target_mounted , 140, 2, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted , 140, 10372, 74
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted_update , 140, 34807, 248
auto_target:move_to_target_static , 75, 6024, 80
auto_target:move_to_target_static_update , 75, 3157, 42
auto_target:static_fire , 75, 16406, 218
auto_target:target_attempt , 75, 86372, 1151

Times breakdown

Results today

playeratat-20090604201502.log: 263 329 66
playeratat-20090604200735.log: 99 130 31
playeratat-20090604192852.log: 905 952 47

48 seconds average (15 targets)

3.2 seconds / target




scott@dell-desktop:~/playeratat/log$ perl times.pl < playeratat-20090604200735.log
Description , Count, Time (ms), Avg (ms)
auto_target:target_attempt , 27, 34798, 1288
auto_target:move_to_target_static , 27, 3849, 142
auto_target:acquire_targets , 27, 0, 0
auto_target:fire_mounted , 9, 1996, 221
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_static , 27, 1, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted_update , 50, 14657, 293
auto_target:fire_mounted_update , 27, 1286, 47
auto_target:static_fire , 27, 6160, 228
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_mounted , 27, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target , 27, 1, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target_mounted , 50, 0, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_static_update , 27, 1103, 40
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted , 50, 3418, 68
auto_target:acquire_targets_mounted , 50, 3, 0

scott@dell-desktop:~/playeratat/log$ perl times.pl < playeratat-20090604201502.log
Description , Count, Time (ms), Avg (ms)
auto_target:target_attempt , 56, 73868, 1319
auto_target:move_to_target_static , 56, 5462, 97
auto_target:acquire_targets , 56, 0, 0
auto_target:fire_mounted , 26, 6267, 241
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_static , 56, 3, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted_update , 104, 31188, 299
auto_target:fire_mounted_update , 56, 2739, 48
auto_target:static_fire , 56, 12876, 229
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_mounted , 56, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target , 56, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target_mounted , 104, 2, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_static_update , 56, 2767, 49
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted , 104, 6338, 60
auto_target:acquire_targets_mounted , 104, 6, 0

scott@dell-desktop:~/playeratat/log$ perl times.pl < playeratat-20090604192852.log
Description , Count, Time (ms), Avg (ms)
auto_target:target_attempt , 108, 128941, 1193
auto_target:move_to_target_static , 108, 8342, 77
auto_target:acquire_targets , 108, 0, 0
auto_target:fire_mounted , 36, 8067, 224
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_static , 108, 5, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted_update , 203, 61551, 303
auto_target:fire_mounted_update , 108, 5566, 51
auto_target:static_fire , 108, 24731, 228
auto_target:fired_acquire_targets_mounted , 108, 4, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target , 108, 0, 0
auto_target:get_nearest_target_mounted , 203, 12, 0
auto_target:move_to_target_static_update , 108, 4143, 38
auto_target:move_to_target_mounted , 203, 11678, 57
auto_target:acquire_targets_mounted , 203, 8, 0

Our best time ever: 2.5 sec per target

Our best time ever

Time trials today with 15 targets:

filename / startime / endtime / duration / per target
playeratat-20090531143039.log: 588 960 372 24.8
playeratat-20090531145100.log: 29 117 88 5.87
playeratat-20090531154751.log: 21 64 43 2.86
playeratat-20090531160845.log: 124 162 38 2.53

Best time: 2.53 per target

Today was the first time we completed time trials with the new turret.
It was also the first time we shot down 15 targets without reloading with any turret.

I didn't take any videos, but I should definitely do that next time we test.

Excellent results!