Estimating Robot Strengths with Application to Selection of Alliance Members in FIRST Robotics Competitions

10/12/2018

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by   Chin-Tsang Chiang, et al.

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Since the inception of the FIRST Robotics Competition and its special playoff system, robotics teams have longed to quantify the strengths of individual robots. During the alliance selection phase, arguably the most game-changing part of the competition, robotics teams rely on quantitative measures to gauge which teams would make a good fit for the playoffs. In this paper, we explore the current methods of measuring the strengths of robots in a three-versus-three competition. We introduce new methods of measuring robot strength via clustering analysis and use measured strength to predict outcomes of playoff matches. Finally, we attempt to answer the question of how many matches are needed in a qualification phase to get an accurate picture of the strengths of a group of robots.