FTC '21-22: Freight Frenzy

Every year, the FIRST releases/launches a new game for the year. With this new game, all FTC teams around the world compete in this game for the highest number of points. A few days ago, the new game for the 2021-2022 Season of FTC has been released. The name of the game: Freight Frenzy.

Freight Frenzy: Explained

The 2021-2022 FTC game is Freight Frenzy. The Freight Frenzy challenge features game elements such as freight, shipping hubs, carousels, warehouses, barriers, and ducks! Each robot starts against the Playing Field wall adjacent to the Alliance Station and must be in possession of of Box piece of freight. From there each team will progress through the thirty second autonomous period followed by the two-minute long driver-controlled period. The last thirty seconds of the match is the end game period. Each period has different scoring achievements. See the scoring summary excerpt from Game Manual Part 2 for more information on the game objectives.

Most FTC games include some sort of navigation or parking task in the autonomous period. Typically, these are autonomous scoring achievements where a robot has moved to a particular portion of the field and parked there.

This year there are four potential navigation achievements.

Parked In Alliance Storage	3 points
Parked Completely in Alliance Storage Unit	6 points
Parked In Warehouse	5 points
Parked Completely in Warehouse	10 points

To understand the full break down of navigating, it helps to understand how Game Manual Part 2 defines In and Completely in. Once you have a grasp on how these concepts are defined you can make a decision about which navigation achievements will give you the most points per second, when compared against the rest of your autonomous strategy.

In general, navigation during autonomous is a very achievable goal. While you may have to consider some obstacles, like the barriers, using our Hello Robot - Encoder Navigation guides for Blocks and Java, you can easily create the code needed to meet any of the navigation achievements.

Since the only scoring achievement in the Driver Controlled period is placing Freight in one of the designated areas the main strategy is efficiency and accuracy. As we said its always about maximizing points per second!

Freight:

The main scoring opportunity in the Driver Controlled period is placing Freight. A robot can control one freight at a time, per game specific rule <GS8>. Score freight by placing freight completely in the Alliance Specific Storage Unit, on one of the levels of the Alliance Shipping Hub, or on the Shared Shipping Hub.

There are a few considerations to make when deciding on your strategy for placing Freight:

Balancing:

At the end of the match additional points may be awarded depending on whether your Alliance Shipping Hub is balanced or the Shared Shipping Hub is unbalanced in your alliances favor. Understanding how to identify the weight difference, and decide how that may effect your strategy.

GS5 and Warehouse Operations

Rule GS5 defines the expectations for each robot in regards to Warehouse Operations. In order for a Freight to be consider legally removed from the Warehouse, each piece of Freight must follow the Warehouse Operations

1. Start Completely Out of the Warehouse, then

2. Drive Completely In the Warehouse, then

3. Collect one (1) piece of Freight, then

4. Drive Completely Out of the Warehouse with the collected Freight.

During End Game you can continue to gain points by placing Freight or do one of the End Game specific tasks.

Duck and Team Shipping Element Delivery:

In end game, ducks and team shipping elements can be introduced to the field by rotating the carousel, similar to the autonomous task. Delivering a duck or team element is worth 6 points a piece. Removing the ducks from autonomous from the overall count, nine ducks (or team elements) can be scored in end game. That's a potential of 54 points in the end game period just for delivering ducks. Obviously this score is reliant on being able to score all nine in the end game period, which would require that the delivery process take around three seconds to complete per duck.

Capping:

Capping involves taking the Team Shipping Element and attempting to score it on top of the center pole above level 3, or on another capped team shipping element. Accuracy is key with this scoring achievement.

Shipping Hub Status:

Shipping Hub Status focuses on where the Shipping Hubs are at, at the conclusion of a match. If the Alliance Shipping Hub is balanced at the end of the match you receive 10 points. If the Shared Shipping Hub is Unbalance you receive 20 point.

After looking at Game Manual Part 2, we believe the best strategy for the Shared Hub is to try to maintain balance as you are placing objects. This way you do not have to scramble at the end of the match to try to balance it.

Parking:

Parking is also considered where the robot is at the end of the match. Calculating how long it would take you to get from one side of the field to the Warehouse will help you decide if the potential points per seconds are worth the points you would have to give up to park.