My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

http://home.scriptprodigy.org/images...per_dumper.jpg

Its an idea inspired from robotin3days.com 's hopper design. My team is focusing on climbing and getting 4 colored in the top once climbed. So no shooting needed, only dumping in the top and dumping possibly in the 19in high score during auton. This will gain us 56 points consistently if we get climbing working 100%. Ideas / thoughts?


EDIT:: Changed image to url because it stretched the page, just click the link!

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

During brainstorming our team had the same idea, and I like the conveyor and belt idea to dump the colored discs in. The difficult part is designing a climbing system to actually make it to the top within the new size restraints.
If you go with it, good luck! I think it would be quite a sight to see something like this happening

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

Yea, we're focusing on climbing above all right now. This was just a quick idea I had while watching the robot in 3 days stream. I think a lot of people will have a similar idea but won't go with it because they are shooting. We aren't trying to do everything this year, changing our game plan up as our previous one wasn't working. Haven't been to states in a few years sadly. Very close every year, and with this design I think we'll make it if we can climb and dump 8/10 times.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

This would be a great strategy, and you'd pretty much guarantee doing well at competitions. You'll also impress judges considering how hard it is to get to the 3rd level of the pyramid.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

The Robot in 3 days videos are awesome! I'm glad someone is doing the rapid prototyping early on...hopefully it will give us an idea sometime this week what works regarding the shooter. We had issues last year prototyping wayyyyy too long.
And for some teams (like ours and it sounds like yours), there are limits to how much you can do in 6 weeks. Some teams out there will get the shooting and climbing to level three down, but for us we have to decide what combination to go with in order to be successful. The climbing and dumping is an option for us, along with a good shooter and climbing level one. With the space decrease this year it would be a huge design problem to get both done.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

I agree that we'll do fairly well if we can climb! Just, have to still figure that out. All we know right now is we want to go up the corners so we have 3 points of contact with the pyramid at all times ridding us of swinging as well as making it easy to go in sequential order.


Yea, I love what they're doing, check out their live stream!
http://www.robotin3days.com/livestream/

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

This is an excellent strategy; Our team had the same idea. However, I fear that there will be many teams with the same strategy, (great minds think alike!), so much that you'll see a few robots on the playing field just sitting on the tower for half the match. Think about it: The match is 2 minutes and 15 seconds long. You guaranteed your team 50 points, and if a robot on the opposing team can accurately score frisbees into the 3pt goal, they have to score 16 frisbees in the 3pt goal. You can hold up to 4 frisbees. So, they'd have to be able to score 1 frisbee in the 3pt goal per 8 seconds. A robot that can shoot at an accurate and massive speed can outclass a climbing robot, and if it has a climbing mechanism in it as well...
I would suggest at least having it play able to play defense against really offensive robots before going up the pyramid. (Although sitting back and drinking ice tea while looking at your beautiful robot is also enjoyable) It's definitely really impressive, and, as Marc says, you're guaranteed to do well.
A robot in 3 days... I can't imagine it.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

Well, once we determine how long it takes to climb we plan to play the 1 ptn hole as long as possible to gain points. We're using super shifters with a 6 wheel drive to ensure our ability to push our way around the field. So we will score 56 for sure, 30 for climbing, 20 for 4 in the top, 6 for 3 in auton. Then beyond that I'm thinking maybe 8 more. Which is two runs of four. If we get good at running single points we can maybe double that. Making a total of 72 points all on our own. We may be fighting for time to feed our robot vs other teams on our alliance though. But with both sides being able to deliver I'm not sure. This years game is a LOT of fun. I like it a lot more than previous years games I've played.

EDIT::
Maybe I just like it because I feel confident in what we are doing this year but eh, just a gut feeling!

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

My team had discussions about the 1 pt. goal and one question came up and stopped us dead in our tracks: How valuable is a robot that can score 1 pt. per frisbee to teams that can score three's and two's all day, especially in light of the limited number of frisbees on the field? Assuming that your alliance partners are killer shooters, they would be able to make up for a bunch of 1 pointers pretty quickly. Basically we figured that being able to score 1's would be fine and all but may not be the best thing in terms of alliance selection.

I do like the climb to level three and dump idea though. It's a great idea actually and one I wish my team had spent more time on.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

Well I figured scoring 1ptns is better than just sitting on the pyramid the whole match since we aren't attempting to actually shoot the frisbees right now, and just dump them. However we could end up going with more of a shooter, this was just an idea we've had.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

It certainly is a great idea--I'm not putting it down. But, if you have some shooters on your team that can consistently do the 3pt/2pt goal, why not play a bit of defense and deny the opposing team's killer shooter's points? As moogboy said, there is only a limited number of frisbees on the playing field. If you have two other robots who are insane shooters and you run out of frisbees on the field, the frisbees you had put in the 1pt goal could have potentially be put in the 2pt/3pt goal by your alliance member. Just a thought.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

Yea, I feel you. With out drive we definitely can play defensive. Just have to be careful about hitting the opponents when they are getting on their pyramid and such. Could cost quite a bit of points.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

Technical fouls certainly can change the tides in a match. If you go ahead and build a defensive bot, be sure to make your drivers' study those penalties!

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

While I think this is a pretty cool strategy, you only have 2 minutes teleop, last 30 seconds for climbing, but since you are revolved around that you'd probably have that set. 8/10 climbs would mean you are making a fresh climb every 20 seconds, giving you about a little under 10 seconds to get up the pyramid and back down, at which point you would start immediately again. Maybe i am missing something, but this seems a bit far-fetched, because you would still have to be getting frisbees between repelling and starting a new climb.

Re: My Hopper/Dumper Idea
 

I've been one of the drivers every year since I've started and heck yea. Penalties always manage to change the pace of the game and may very well decide the winner several times over. I always do a complete read of the rule book and a double of everything I'm involved in such as programming, controls, and driving.