Know Your Lingo#

Many teams may be unfamiliar with the various terms and slang that are often thrown around at competitions and meets. Here we have compiled a guide of some commonly used terms to get you up to speed.

Competitions#

Program Delivery Partner (PDP): Director or directors for events and activities in a region. Used to be referred to as the Affiliate Partner (AP).
Qualifier: Tournament with 5-6 qualifying matches and best-of-three alliance elimination matches. Judging included. Will advance to States/Regional level.
League Meet: Low-stress competition with matches counting towards league rank at a League Tournament. No judging.
League Tournament: Tournament with ranked matches and alliance elimination matches for teams participating in that League. Judging included. Will advance to States/Regional level. Sometimes called a “League Championship”.
Alliance: Group of two or, in eliminations, two or three teams that compete. In elimination matches each team must play at least once.
Ranking Points (RP): Primary basis in rankings at traditional events. For the Power Play season, each team receives 2 RP for winning a qualification match, 1 for tieing, and 0 for losing.
TieBreaker Points (TBP): Secondary determinant in team rankings for traditional events, primary determinant for remote events. For the Power Play season, this is split up into two parts; TBP1 and TBP2. TBP1 is used before TBP2, and is the alliances/teams autonomous period score. TBP2 is the alliances/teams end game score. (Whether it is alliances/teams depends on if the team is at traditional events, respectively.)
Qualification Match: Qualifying matches (generally 5) with random alliance partners and opponents will be played to determine team rankings.
Elimination Match: 2 alliances of 2 or 3 teams each compete in best of 3 matches to determine winning alliance. Also known as elim matches, or just elims.

Robot Components#

DC Motor: Open-loop RS-555 series 12 volt motors used to power mechanisms. Max of 8.
Servo: Closed-loop servo-motors used for precise movement. Controlled by PWM signals. Max of 12.
Drivetrain (DT): Mechanism responsible for the movement of the robot.
Intake: Mechanism responsible for picking up game elements from the field by using rotational motion.
Claw: Mechanism responsible for picking up game elements by grasping.
Linear Extension/Slide: Mechanism responsible for extending parts beyond the starting configuration of the robot in a linear fashion.
Arm: Mechanism responsible for extending the reach of the robot through rotational motion or multi-axis movement.
REV Expansion Hub: Hardware controller for the robot, connected to Robot Controller phone. Controls 4 motor and encoders, 6 servos, and various sensors via digital, analog, and I2C ports. Maximum of 2 hubs.
REV Control Hub: Integrated Expansion Hub + Robot Controller phone. It serves many of the same purposes as the Expansion Hub but eliminates the need for a Robot Controller phone. 1 Expansion Hub may be used along side 1 Control Hub.
Driver Station (DS): Android phone connected to the gamepad controller. Drivers interact with the DS phone to start/stop robot.
Robot Controller: Android phone connected to the Expansion Hub. Connects to DS phone via WiFi-Direct.
Gamepad Controller: An Xbox or PS4 style controller which the driver uses to control the robot during driver-control period. Maximum of 2.