POLL: Shooting from...

[mgreene]

Where are we all shooting from?

[Excelsior]

General area in the middle of the field. We can vary the speed of our shooter, so we should have decent range.

[nuggetsyl]

i think most everyone will shoot from about the 15 foot range. I also think the 3 pt shot will be quite common and that this game will have high scoring to it

shaun

[eiii]

We, being a rookie team, don't have a way to reliable shoot the ball planned out yet. We're probably going to end up going for just the corner goals.

[BRosser314]

I believe that once u go farther away you lose accuracy and at half field we were able to hit our target repeatedly with less then a 1 second between each ball. The accuracy of the game is going to be based on how many balls u shoot and if the device that is shooting the balls is up to the correct speed.

[Dulaney1727]

Do you think that you will have greater chance of success, if you just dump a hopper full of balls into the lower the goals or if you stand in one place and continually shoot balls into the 3 point goal?

[Barry Bonzack]

hitting the corner goals when we feel like it, mainly just messing up your shot from where ever you are open on the field ;) ...perhaps provide protection to a robot trying to defend an ally.

Why bothering scoring if you know that another team can score more accurately than you? Just a thought.

[Ian Curtis]

Do you think that you will have greater chance of success, if you just dump a hopper full of balls into the lower the goals or if you stand in one place and continually shoot balls into the 3 point goal?

3 pointers. For everyball you score, your opponent can score 3 points. If you score 20 balls at 1 point apeice, you get 20 points. If they shoot the same number of balls, and miss say, 10 of them, giving them a perfectly reasonable accuracy rating, they score 30 points. But I'd rather have a team on my alliance who could hold 20 balls, dump them, and climb the ramp, than a team that could shoot 15 balls through center goal, and not climb the ramp.

[GaryVoshol]

Do you think that you will have greater chance of success, if you just dump a hopper full of balls into the lower the goals or if you stand in one place and continually shoot balls into the 3 point goal?
What makes you think your opponents will allow you to do either? :)

I'm pushing (OK, "trying to convince") the team to be able to do both, just in case either is needed. We've spent a lot of time getting a shooter to work, now we have to work on the rest of it - scoring low goals, collecting balls, HP shooting, distributing balls to shooter and/or dumper - and of course, being able to program the whole mess. We'll see where it all ends up.

[Lil' Lavery]

If your alliance does not have the option to shoot 3 pointers, you better have the capability to get on that platform...
otherwise those 10 autonomous bonus points are going to mean a LOT more


And keep in mind there are both minimum and maximum ranges, especially if you have a fixed release angle.

[billbo911]

We, being a rookie team, don't have a way to reliable shoot the ball planned out yet. We're probably going to end up going for just the corner goals.
If you can reliably get ALL 10 of your balls in a corner goal during Autonomous every time, you will be a great asset to just about any alliance. This is even more true if you can do it in the goal on the far side of the field!

[Dulaney1727]

We have tried many different ways of shooting the ball including springs and pneumatics but they have all failed miserably. We are now attempting to use a motor to spin two wheels to try and shoot the ball, similar to a baseball gun at the batting cages. Are we heading in the right direction? Has this worked for one yet?

[Rick TYler]

We have tried many different ways of shooting the ball including springs and pneumatics but they have all failed miserably. We are now attempting to use a motor to spin two wheels to try and shoot the ball, similar to a baseball gun at the batting cages. Are we heading in the right direction? Has this worked for one yet?

Yes, it will work.

Here's a hint on another direction: If you spin one wheel at about twice the speed you think the ball needs to fly, and mount a flat plate about six inches above the wheel, the ball will fly nicely and have really cool-looking backspin. The trick is to mount the right-sized plate the right height above the wheel at the correct angle. This takes some trial and error, but you should be able to do it in an afternoon. A single-wheel launcher is a lot easier to engineer than a two-wheel launcher. If you mount it near the bottom of your 'bot, you can take advantage of gravity feed, too.

I would post a picture of our single-wheel prototype, except that we seem to have dismantled it before taking a picture. Oops. It wasn't pretty, anyway. It would hit the 8-1/2 foot goal from more than 15 feet away, and this was with a bench grinder motor driving a steel rod using holes in plywood as bearings. With a proper motor (*cough* big CIM *cough*), some decent bearings, and the right drive mechanism (*cough* Gates timing belt *cough*), it will make a simple, reliable shooter.

[s_forbes]

We plan to be able to shoot for the corners from most anywhere on the field. Lower point value, I know, but we plan on a rapidfire capability which should make it more interesting. We are only a rookie team too, so we decided to shy away from the higher goal.

[Mike Norton]

If done right you should be able to hit all 10 balls in the 3 point hole from any starting place. That is what make robots good, they do repeat well.

[arabsponsor]

How about a team that could shoot the 15 three pointers and climb the ramp?

[Josh Murphy]

i think that shooting the ball is overrated but is a nice advantage to have so we will see when the competitions start but if i had the choice to shoot it would be from anywhere i want as long as it is from less than half court so i don't violate the muzzle velocity

[Rick TYler]

We plan to be able to shoot for the corners from most anywhere on the field. Lower point value, I know, but we plan on a rapidfire capability which should make it more interesting. We are only a rookie team too, so we decided to shy away from the higher goal.

For what it's worth, we war-gamed this strategy and think that if you combine it with a really fast and efficient ball-collection system you will have a winner. Our team was split about 40-60 between this approach and building a shooter. Actually, depending on some assumptions, a ball-grabbing, defensive bot that can quickly dump a bunch in the lower goal might be the best single choice in the game (as long as it is allied with at least one good shooter).

[Greg Perkins]

I'm not on a team, but my idea would be to make sure you can get the top goal, but still be able to hit a lot of balls into the cornes. one way to accomplish this would be to have a one way "valve" that balls enter the shooting mechanism with, spin your motors in one way you can shoot for the center, but when a ball gets loaded into the chamber, spin the motors in reverse to the other one and rapid fire balls into the corner.

just a suggestion

[Nimmy]

im note sure if my teammates claculations are correct
but if you can shoot a ball in a straight line from half court or over
aren't you exceeding the 12m\s rule?

shooting from the ramp is a great idea since once your untop of it (and it's hard im guessing) it will be very hard to interfere with your shots
however if you do this in the last 40 seconds you could end up giving your opponents
a big lead with the ramp bonus