1995

Archive tag	1995
Game Information
Game name	Ramp n' Roll
Number of teams	59
Number of official events	2
Chairman's Award winner	151
Winner	100
Finalist	126
← 1994 1996 →

The 1995 FIRST Robotics Competition season formally began on January 1995.

Competition season consisted of one regional competition in Nashua, New Hampshire and the National Championship at the EPCOT Center at Disney World. Originally, an additional regional was planned for February 27 and 28 in Charlotte, North Carolina, but was canceled due to the low number of teams that signed up to participate. Teams did not need to qualify for the Championship and could participate in the New Hampshire Regional, Nationals, or both.

This year was the first year that a "live" score was available during the match, with each successful score being accompanied by a "swoosh" sound effect.

Documentation

Kickoff

https://www.frcarchive.com/index.php?q=image/42713.mp4

Playing field and scoring

• 

  The playing field [1]

• 

  Ramp dimensions [2]

• 

  Speed Bump dimensions [3]

• 

  Field Goal dimensions [4]

The field is a carpeted modified "T" with three titular Ramps leading up to a platform at the top of the "T". Two uncarpeted Slopes connect the center Ramp with the two side Ramps and a Back Wall and netting separate the drive teams from the field. The top of the T is 30 feet wide and the Raceway extending downwards is 12 feet wide. The total length of the field is 40 feet. The thicker portion of the field including the Ramps and Field Goal is 12 feet long, with angled corners parallel to the Slopes transitioning the platform area to the Raceway. The Raceway includes the four inch tall Speed Bump, flanked by two eight inch tall walls, halfway down its 28 foot length. The platform is four feet square and 30 inches off the ground. The Field Goal is made from two inch inner diameter PVC and is located 15 inches from the front edge of the platform, part way down the front Ramp. The top of the horizontal bar is five feet from the floor, with uprights six feet apart and extending up for feet above the horizontal bar. The field is surrounded by a 4" wooden perimeter with a steel fence installed on top.

Three robots play simultaneously in the seeding rounds and first three rounds of playoffs. Robots start lined up facing away from the Ramps and towards the cluster of six balls down the Raceway. Each team has two matching color balls, one 24 inches and one 30 inches in diameter, that start at the end of the field and past the Speed Bump. To count as scored, the ball must break the vertical place above the horizontal bar of the Field Goal uprights. Scoring a 24 inch ball is worth two points and scoring a 30 inch ball is worth three points. The team that matches the color of the ball, not necessarily the team that scored it, receives the points. Tiebreaks are determined first by the large colored ball at the highest elevation from the floor and then by the large colored ball closest to the center of the platform.

Each match lasts two minutes. The control system is automatically enabled and disabled when matches begin and end.

Game strategy

Although it was written in the rules that grabbing or grasping the Field Goal was against the rules, and the intention seems to be that balls would be shot or lifted and dropped through the Field Goal, the overwhelmingly dominant method of scoring was for robots to collect a single ball in a large fork or other grabber and lift it completely through the Field Goal so that it counted as scored and then bring the grabber back through the Field Goal to score again in the other direction. Arms and other lifting mechanisms could not rest on top of the Field Goal and some robots would tip up on one set of wheels as the weight of their arm and grabber passed through the Field Goal. Catapults and robots scoring from the ramp were generally outperformed by robots that would sit behind the Field Goal on top of the ramp. Some robots incorporated stabilizers that would be deployed when in position at the top of the ramp.

When starting in the middle (blue) position, it was easiest to charge the bump and grab the close blue ball and then try to make it up the ramp to score. Scoring first was almost always a tactical advantage. From one of the side starting positions it was usually more advantageous to wait for the bump to clear and grab one of the larger balls to score.

Robot construction

As was the norm for the era, the majority of robot components came from the kit of parts or Small Parts catalog. The Small Parts allowance for 1995 was $425, with some of the $500 budget already spent on two high-torque couplings to couple the drill motors to the drivetrain. No more than four pulleys and/or sprockets and 10 feet of belt and/or chain from outside sources could be used, and these components had to be used in the drivetrain. Fasteners were not included in the parts allowance. A DEC LA75 dot-matrix printer was included in the kit, although like previous years the motors and electronics could not be connected to the control system. Robots must fit unconstrained inside a 30 inch tall cylinder that is 36 inches in diameter. Robots could weigh a maximum of 70 pounds including batteries. Adding or removing mechanisms that would "alter the operation of the machine" was not allowed after the first seeding match. Teams that competed at the 1995 New England Tournament were allowed to modify their robots for the five days following the competition.

Robots had to display their sponsor and school name so that judges and referees could identify them during a match. Canonical team numbers were assigned, but were only used to order from Small Parts and pick up kits of parts.

Control system

• 

  The transmit side of the control system, with two PC flight sticks and RNET radio [5]

• 

  The receiver box (lower middle) and relay box (upper right), with RNET radio, servos, limit switches, and two drill motor battery boxes [6]

• 

  The receiver and relay boxes on team 45's 1995 robot

Two off-the-shelf PC flight sticks from CH Products were included in the kit of parts. These plugged into the bespoke Transmit Box and allowed for three axis of proportional control from each joystick (two for the joystick itself and a third for a thumb wheel) with two digital buttons on each joystick. An additional port on the transmit box could be used to wire in an additional custom controller at the expense of some of the controls on the joysticks.

The receiver box directly output PWM signals which could be used to drive small servo motors, the Tekin speed controllers, or larger seat motors through the relay box. The relay box could be wired so that limit switches would turn on or off motor output.

Four Delco seat motors and two Milwaukee drill motors with gearboxes were included as well as two Tekin reversing speed controllers. Two Textron pneumatic pumps and a selection of pneumatic hardware were also included.

Team list

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Season numbers for 1995 are non-canonical.‎
*Teams that only competed in 1995 never received negative team numbers.‎
More information about pre-1998 team numbers is available here.

Team number	Season number	Team name	Team location	Robot	Archive link
6	Alliant Techsystems Inc. & Washburn Senior High School Minnesota's Mighty Millers	Hopkins, MN		1995 frc6
1995frc10*	Davis-Standard Division & Stonington High School	Pawcatuck, CT		1995frc10
1995frc11*	Davol Inc., Subsidiary of C.R. Bard, Inc. & Central High School/Times2	Cranston, RI		1995frc11
1995frc19*	G.E. Elfun Society @ General Electric Co. & Fitchburg High School/Montachusett Regional Technical School	Fitchburg, MA		1995frc19
20	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute & Shenendehowa High School	Troy, NY		1995 frc20
23	Boston Edison Company & Plymouth North High School	Plymouth, MA		1995 frc23
1995frc29*	Martin Marietta Corporation/Northwestern State University & Louisiana School for Math Science & the Arts	New Orleans, LA	Jack the Ripper	1995frc29
1995frc36*	PATHS/PRISM & Strawberry Mansion Middle/Sr. High	Philadelphia, PA		1995frc36
37	Florida International University & Mast Academy	Miami, FL		1995 frc37
42	Daniel Webster College/Lockheed Commercial Electronics Corp & Alvirne High School	Nashua, NH		1995 frc42
43	Dart Container Corporation & Mason Public High School The FOAMIN' BullDAWGS	Mason, MI	Dart Vader	1995 frc43
45	Delco Electronics Corporation & Kokomo High School KHS FIRST	Kokomo, IN	H2Kat (Hurryin' Hoosier Kat)	1995 frc45
1995frc52*	U.S. Naval Academy Alumni/Sandia National Laboratories & Cibola High School	Albuquerque, NM		1995frc52
55	Texas Instruments, Inc. & Austin Academy for Excellence	Dallas, TX		1995 frc55