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Fuel Capacities
We (155) are planning on a 40-60 fuel ball range at this point, depending on where bits and parts fall within the final frame construction. This doesn't account for additional balls that may be able to "nest" on top of the pile once the hopper has been filled; that would be a nice accident, but not something we're relying on for an extra handful of balls.
Curious what capacities other teams are planning on in their robot for a "cycle" of fuel collection before shooting/delivering to the boiler. |
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Iron Kings have been working with some ripped-down-to-1"-by-2" 2x4s to define out structure and make sure everything fits. With sub-optimal packing (most of these balls were still bagged), we think 50-60 is very doable for a fuel-oriented, chute-gears-only robot. I wouldn't begrudge a team eating into that capacity for more advanced gear handling, though. |
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Right now we think we will be holding about 50 fuel balls in our current hopper, which is fixed in the frame perimeter for the short volume. The hopper gives up some space to single file the balls 4 wide going into the fuel injector (low goal) since jamming is a much bigger concern for us than an extra few balls. Since I could see us getting into the 60 plus range with creative use of the intake conveyor for storage and sides that expand, and there is room for a gear from the loading station, I think 50 should be pretty achievable for any team focused on fuel.
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4607 is currently at 24 in our "quick load" hopper, and another 60 or so in our primary hopper*. We might eat into our primary hopper a little bit more as we continue mounting things but we've optimized for hopper volume from the beginning.
Is there even a benefit to having an extremely large hopper? How long can you reasonably expect to sit in the key shooting before somebody on the opposing alliance decides their time is more valuable playing defense on you? 5 seconds? 10 seconds? 20 seconds? If you have an extremely large hopper it'll take you a longer amount of time to empty it. Now obviously you could just stop emptying your hopper and continue cycling gears when defense takes notice, but then why design your robot with such a big hopper? Presumably that volume could be used to improve the functionality of other mechanisms. Another question is how much Fuel can you reasonably expect to acquire before it makes sense to start emptying your hopper? Catching 50 from a field hopper is a good start, but then how much Fuel will you intake while running Gear cycles? *Calculations done assuming a random packing factor for spheres of 64% |
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Team 1708 is able to fit around 40-50 fuel (comfortably) in our hopper on our prototype.
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Our goal is to fit one hopper load (so 50) within our hopper. This does not include any balls that can protrude above the hopper. Anything above 50 for us is just icing on the cake.
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Since 6101 is going for the LE goal, we're aiming to squeeze a maximum capacity of 65-70 balls into our hopper.
Originally, we were aiming for 100+ balls with a simply, small profile, gear manipulator. However, the LE goal hopper maxes-out at 70 balls, so anything above 70-75 offers little additional advantage. With this new information we redesigned the gear manipulator to pick-up gears off the floor which ultimately cut our estimated capacity down to the 65-70 range. |
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If there's ever a poll on this, make sure there's an option for scoring '0' balls to the boiler. Some people on CD will think "whaaaa?!?!?! that's crazy", but I know of a few teams who know how to turn 0-capacity scoring into an advantage.
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Team 3072 is looking at around 40-50 in the hopper, with close to 12 that can fit in our intake mechanism
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That robot would be playing on Saturday the CMP for sure with a reasonably good shot to make it to Einstein. Luck favors the bold... Dr. Joe J. |
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This screw-the-fuel strategy is bold, and may not reap full dividends in quals, but I could see it being a very high draft pick assuming the alliance captains are paying any kind of attention. (Time to fundraise to build that robot this off-season...) |
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Dr. Joe J. |
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Being mediocre at GEARS from either alliance station spot next to the BOILER puts any other-wise great GEAR alliance captain at risk of being declined in elims at the higher levels of play. If there is a superb FUEL robot at an event, that team is likely best in the first draft pick spot or as captain. Any GEAR bot that is superb under defense is a lock for getting picked by the 7th or 8th seed, as a 2nd pick, regardless of whether it's a Regional or IFI. The 1st seeded alliance is almost assuredly getting knocked off in QF if the best GEAR bot is the 2nd pick for the 8th seed. Yet for SF's and beyond, they may be likely to fall to a more well-rounded alliance that is better at FUEL. Yet a great FUEL bot that struggles from the alliance station furthest from the boiler as a 2nd pick is likely to be passed over for a good defense robot. Decision, decisions... |
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All, I appreciate the responses thus far. I hope we can keep this thread on topic though, and continue to discuss Fuel Capacities of hoppers, logic/rationale behind those choices, etc.
Particularly interesting to me thus far has been the choices between HG and LG; you know there are teams out there that will focus on one or the other, but as a HG-focused team, we haven't given much thought to the LG mindset, so it's helpful and insightful. |
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(Sorry for the derail) One of the concepts I've read about elsewhere is the mindset that throughput rewards more than accuracy. An insight from my team's analysis that I haven't seen discussed much on the forums is that to decrease cycle times, in the early-mid game a team would simply re-direct missed HG shots into the LG. In late game, that same team would redirect missed shots back into the hopper to retry HG. The point is to get as many balls as possible onto the same side of the field as your BOILER as early as possible. If the opponents couldn't keep up with the sheer flow of balls, there would effectively become a cycle of balls from the overflow/feeder station to the boiler, reducing cycle times. This would then require enough hopper capacity to get control of as many balls as possible early, while also having several ways to control entry into the hopper. It would inform nearly every design decision on the robot: - Taller robot volume for the easy passive redirect - Open frame or tiny frame for a floor intake - Any intake would push balls up from the bottom into the hopper in order to make a bubble of balls on top. Maximize the hopper or bust! - Want a bulldozer for the balls we can't fit into the hopper. - Who needs indexing? A 15"-wide shooter would work wonders for throughput. - The hopper needs to expand to the maximum volume - i.e. to the bumpers' edges. - Single speed transmissions - 2-speeds take up to much volume - The 4 available non-drivetrain 40A ports on the PDB are going to intakes and the shooter - 4WD WCD, Chain-In-Tube becomes one of the best plausible space-saving designs - Hope we can make a climber in a tiny space (for average teams it is unlikely to have confidence this is a definite 'yes' in the few days after kickoff). |
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