Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Our good friends on 5869 show us how to truly defeat the portcullis.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Does the field wall count as a defense? Chesapeake District Greater DC Qualifier... Robot Exit Stage Left. Broke through the field wall. Not our robot though and I can't remember which teams it was.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Before the Portcullis started eating Field Supervisors later in the season FRC 772 did this to the Portcullis by repeatedly ramming it instead of lifting it. They got a yellow card for their efforts.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Has yet to cause or receive any damage, but I'm curious how the Log Roll will fare at GRITS (Georgia Robotics Invitational & Tournament Showcase) on October 22nd.

Here is the provided description:
The Log Roll is composed of two 3.5 inch diameter logs in a 3 degree X shape that your robot must traverse. Both logs roll on independent bearings and will have a textured "bark" applied to the outside.

The Log Roll will replace the Portcullis in Category A. The other Category A defense is the Cheval de Frise.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

I'm anticipating plenty of sadness and frustration over this.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

This pretty much describes every single wood-version Portcullis ever made. I don't think I've seen a single one that survived the whole build season intact (with the possible exception of ones that were never used with actual robots).

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

386 broke the Drawbridge in half at South Florida. I will include a picture later if I remember.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

This is my new favorite video.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

I added a feature to a low bar once. After some robots knocked the pipe out of a practice low bar, I tried to repair it by stapling the fabric back together over he pipe. I needed something solid behind the fabric so the staple gun would work properly. I came across two scrap wood blocks, one of which I set the pipe on so it didn't pull the fabric down, and the other I held behind the staple gun. The staples went farther than expected, and bound the wood block to the low bar. I ended up using zip ties.

5607 almost crossed the Cheval de Frise, then decided that following a destructive robot wasn't the best idea. Red robot(435?) in the secret passage was about to go back to the courtyard, then decided, "I think we'll stay out of their way..." :D

What was that portcullis made of? Did a wooden robot break a wooden defense?

Looks both entertaining and slightly terrifying. Will there be a webcast?

+1

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Yep, wooden.

At the Fall Classic, we had to repair the low bars (wooden) three times. The third time, right after the second time, we had to pull them off of the field to repair, so we ran the Rock Wall instead for a few matches.

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

At GKC, we had knocked off the plastic cover on the side of the sally port at some point. That was the extent of the damage I saw. I know we have video of that somewhere...

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

At GKC we had a funny instance to add to our list of things we gave out with our No Robot Left Behind (NRLB) program. The field crew came into the pit looking for tools and we gave them a hacksaw, which they used on the ramparts IIRC.

I found a description: "In Kansas City, the balls held up reasonably well, but the parts on some defenses took lots of abuse. A pin holding down the Ramparts got damaged, and it took a hacksaw to get the Ramparts removed from the floor. The Sally Fort doors were also in frequent need of repair between matches. Other defenses were accumulating burrs. We wonder how the field will hold up to several more weeks of competition."

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

We share a practice field with 3130 and their low bar was a bit narrower than the competition one (that or ours was wider). I stopped counting how many times we broke it (way more than 5). Some of their freshman got a good learning experience at least....

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Remember that curie division match where the portacalus came out good time good times

Re: Worst you've seen to the Defenses?
 

Link

We had a fun match at SMR.