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Watch this video and you will learn what you need to know about Tempo and OODA https://t.co/0x13dC7oLz
I used to fence and do other sword fighting, and tempo was by far one of the most mysterious and magical elements of fighting. I've got a sense of what tempo looks like in physical combat, and curious about extending it to other realms.
Watching this play out with robots makes it easier for me to see what's going on. Humans are adaptable enough that you can imagine infinite wiggle room, "Yeah well if I did X they could just do Y" But these robots are running a single specified algo for their fighting.
PID is a common algo used to get a motor going from one speed to another, with minimum fuss. It involves making adjustments, sensing how that affects the actual speed, preemptively dialing back, and all sorts of shenanigans. https://t.co/vT2MO9WWWk
Look at 1:35 on the main video for a perfect fake out. Two bots are in a headlock, motors at full force. One stalls out. To not go off the edge, the other stalls, and right away the other full speed rams them faster than they can reorient to
Sumo robots is a game of PURE tempo. Every movement has a perfect counter. The only path to victory is to get inside the others control loop. "real world" competitions seem to be about multiple actors working in a periodically changing environment. What changes?