Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Is anyone going for bump traversal? I've heard arguments for both bridge and bump, but how many are doing which, and why?

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We were going to, however in our recent design and strategy meeting we deemed it not important for our strategies.

EDIT: I just had to: "I used to want to go over the bump, but then I took a new idea to the head".

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We're going for traversing the barrier with ease. We just proved a concept, making it fairly easy to cross it with our 6 wheel drive.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We encountered more difficulties than expected and decided to focus on the bridge first, since the bridge is worth points after all.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Out of curiosity, what kind of device did you use? Skid plate, raised idler, etc.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We used a very simple design. Put a piece of metal in front of the wheels that acted as a slope before the wheels hit. While the back two wheels push, the front of the robot is raised, allowing wheel contact to hit at 2 inches (we have 8 inch wheels). I could make it over with little effort. The design is far from finished, but it shows great chance for success.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Our team deemed going over the bump crucial to our strategy. However, we are still are able to use the bridge with ease. We narrowed our design concepts down to three and prototyped them all; Tank, eight wheel, and mechanum. They all go over the bump, no skid plate.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

It depends on your strategy(ies). For us, we decided that we'd be going over the mid field area 2, maybe 3 times maximum a match, and even that on a rare occasion. We also wanted to focus on getting an accurate bridge manipulator.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We're gonna go for the bump.
You should have made a poll.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We are also going for the bump, and are using raised wheels to accomplish that goal.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

I think going for the bridge is a waste of time and that there are too many complications. We're just going over the bump.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

I agree waste of time its just 40 points which wont make a difference in any game. (/sarcasm)

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Don't underestimate 40 points, by any means. The end game can often change the outcome of the game - look at the minibot races in Logomotion. If no robots could hang tubes effectively, but one had a working minibot, that was the winning aspect. Even if a team is 39 points down, getting the end game of 40 points balancing would prove to be worth the effort. My point being, 40 points is a LOT in FIRST competitions.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Blatant sarcasm is blatant...

The point of "over the barrier or over the bridge" is for gameplay, not for endgame. I assume most teams will understand the importance of the endgame (especially in elims, where 3 robots on the alliance bridge is worth 40 points) and will at least be able to balance on the bridge, if not have a mechanism to lower the bridge themselves (which is important for at least 1 team in the match to have for coopertition points).

As for the actual question of the thread, we intend to go over the barrier at this point, with a similar skid system like Henzado described.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

I think they were referring to during non end game stuff.

We are planing on going over the bump. And also the bridge but mainly the bump.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

How many times would you even need to cross. the way i see it your going to have balls on your side of the court so if u see yourself being a offensive bot then why even go over the bump?

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

There is probably going to be a feeder bot thats playing defense and stuff. and the human feeder can bounce pass them across so i don't think you will need to cross.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

Nice team number.

In my experience things sometimes change during a match, or during a competition. For example, you're on the field with two awesome shooters, and you are just good. Presto, you're a defensive bot who moves balls to the shooters. Or, ALL the balls are on the other side of the bump - now what, just sit there?

I agree with Supernerd256 that you might only cross the bump 2 or 3 times a match, but it is still nice to have that capability, even if it is ugly.

Certainly, if you can cross over using the bridge instead, you should be OK without bump capability.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We're going over. Our team has lots (read we did them in 2011, 2010, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004) of experience with tank treads. We were going to switch to wheels, but decided to stick with our old standards. If you give them a 5" rise with an angle, like a WWI tank, we should be able to get over the bump with ease. We've tested it with our 2010 bot, that has a 10" rise and angle, and it works great. A bit of a heavy landing, but we can deal with that.

I think many people are underestimating the bumps (just like the ball throwing endgame). If you save 5 seconds on each traversal of the field, by not waiting in line or going out of your way to get to the bridge, you save between 15 and 20 seconds per game. This could translate into another 'going across and shooting' cycle, or make the difference in getting onto the bridge. So essentially it nets you 10 points.

Re: Barrier Traversal-Who's Going For It?
 

We're going over the barrier, but also able to use the bridge. We don't have ten wheels for nothin'!