Shooters?
 

So this year, our team decided that one of the things we want our robot to be able to do, is to load frisbees into other robots, but unfortunately we don't know how most teams' robots will accept the frisbees. So I was hoping if y'all could help tell me how your robots will get the frisbees, so that we will have an idea of what we should build.

:D Thanks! :D

Re: Shooters?
 

We're using an open-top hopper that will line up with one of the human player slots that we can load 4 in from there.

Re: Shooters?
 

Most teams who will be shooting will have some way to get frisbees from the human player feeder slots into their shooter. I'd say, if you made your robot into a feeder slot, it could work well...now what height...

Re: Shooters?
 

Ours can receive from the bottom slot.

Re: Shooters?
 

From the many pictures and youtube videos of robots I've seen so far I'd have to say the middle feeder slot seems to be the popular choice.

Re: Shooters?
 

Is it legal for your robot to steal frisbees from other robots?:confused:

Re: Shooters?
 

We were thinking that if we were going to feed frisbees to a robot, we would only be able to feed it to robots that accept frisbees from the middle slot and the bottom slot.

We are unable to feed frisbees to robots that accept it from the top slot.

We were thinking of making a ramp so that it would go over the bumpers and into the robot, but we are still unsure of how to exactly do it.

Re: Shooters?
 

I think so, but it would be near impossible because of G29.

Edit: But the idea of having a mobile feeder station robot actually seems very interesting. I had assumed that robots that could pick up off the ground would be useful strictly for the ability to pick up shots fired from their feed station, but if a robot can bring the feederstation to its alliance members, then even the robots that require being fed could benefit from a robot that gathers discs for its alliance members that shoot.

Re: Shooters?
 

A good shooter with the ability to park themselves in one location to shoot while one robot feeds them from the loading station could be a dangerous alliance pairing.

Re: Shooters?
 

Here's a CAD Shot of our shooter. We dumped the bucket hopper for a simpler system. We'll have an extension that allows the 'bees to go from loading slot to shooter system. We're using a PG71 with a custom made cam to move the frisbees into the shooter mechanism.
Team 3355-Purple Vipers

Re: Shooters?
 

We have an open topped hopper that sits so it's even with the bottom of the second feeder slot.

Re: Shooters?
 

We will be able to get frisbees from the floor, so one simple strategy would be to just get as many frisbees as possible to our side of the field for us to pick up. Lots of teams will probably do the same, I'm assuming.

Re: Shooters?
 

Thank you! I really wanted someone to build this kind of robot! What I would recommend is just take in frisbees from the top loading dock and then have an exact replica of the three slots on the other side so that you would have the best flexibility. Every good shooter should have a human loading bay on it so that should make you VERY valuable.

Re: Shooters?
 

Interesting strategy choice... And as far as I can tell, a highly unique one.

Here is what I would do, if I were you. Most, if not all, shooting robots will be able to accept from one or more feeder station slots. I'd build something that simulates the feeder station slots, with an elevator of some kind to bring discs up to the proper slots and "kick" them out. One of the slots should have a strong enough "kick" to score in the low goal, just because sometimes an easy point or two is too good to pass up.

However, some teams will also have floor pickup, and be relying on picking up missed shots. Having a floor dump option would be highly attractive to those teams, especially if it could lay 4 discs in a line. Or a shooter, which could also be useful in case of heavy D on your star robot.

Re: Shooters?
 

This is something that will be picked for eliminations if you do it right. Team 16's strategy at Championships last year was a huge boost for their alliance, and 4334 could be considered the "budget" version of that same strategy. Both were effective because they basically took points from the other alliance and gave them to their own, plus they were good balancing partners.

Something that could possibly be added is a floor pickup so you can steal discs on the floor from the other alliance. This would be fairly secondary, since I doubt many discs will end up on the floor outside of the last 30 seconds.

Don't forget to climb, either! 10 points is low hanging fruit this year. :p

Re: Shooters?
 

I love this concept. I really hope that some one in our regional does the same.

One question I have is are you guys planning to pick up Frisbees from the ground? If so, are you planning on flipping them?

Re: Shooters?
 

I think BOTH robots going to re-load together is even more dangerous (8 discs per re-load vs. 4). Also, it might make avoiding defense easier if 2 are coming at once...

Re: Shooters?
 

We are currently not planning to pick up frisbees from the ground, but instead we will get them from the feeder slots.

Our current design right now will only be able to feed the frisbees to one height during the match and will be adjustable while not in the match. So, we cannot feed frisbees to two robots that accept discs from different heights at the same time.

Also, if no one on our alliance needs our help we could also drop it into the low goal. Our other objective was defense, so if we didn't need to feed frisbees, we could also block other robots.

And thanks for your feedback so far guys! :)

Re: Shooters?
 

Do you think you can make your Autonomous mode able to give discs to a partner robot? It would take some configuration, since different robots will have their intakes in different places, but you might be able to do that on the dashboard. The benefit is that, if your robot doesn't shoot for the high goal (6 points during auton), then you can give two or three discs to a robot that can. That adds a lot of value (up to 18 points) to the alliance.

Re: Shooters?
 

Hey Larry,

On Blue alliance you guys seem to be signed up for both Northern Lights and Lake Superior. Which one are you actually attending?

The teams from last year's LSR seem to be split pretty evenly between the two.

We are going back to LSR.

Re: Shooters?
 

That post is way off topic, and can derail the discussion. Questions like that should be handled via PM, or email, or such. Please try to keep the thread clean.

Re: Shooters?
 

We're going to use the top feeder slot (62 inches high I believe).