Mousebots???
 

Are mousebots/tetherbots allowed? They didn't say anything about it at kickoff......

"Rule M18: Mechanisms or components that present an obious risk of entanlement are not allowed" - but i thought that this rule was here last year and there were tons of allowable mousebots.

lauren

well I guess you could have a mouse bot but unless it is going to knock over stacks it would be useless
the entire robot has to be ontop of the ramp to get the 25 points

Not on top
 

One thing that I heard, in the discussion about stacking one robot on top of the other: If the lower robot is touching the ramp, then it is not in scoring position.

My take on it (I still can't download the rules :( ) Is that there is no reason for a mouse or tape unit. It would almost assure that you couldn't score the 25 points for being on top of the ramp.

Re: Not on top
 

That was my thought exactly.

I just sumbitted a question on the FRC Forums about top of the ramp scoring ... whether or not your ENTIRE robot had to be on top or not - From what was said during the braodcast, I am assuming so. We'll see!

- Katie

The manual says the entire robot has to be on top of the ramp.

-Rc

They wouldn't be entirely useless, especially if you could drive them manually, I think Delco Remy's team had one last year. Anyways, my point is, you could guard your multiplier stack while knocking over the opponent's stack.

If a tether was made that doesnt mean that it has to stay on the field it could get re sucked up at the end to avoid that rule with the top of the ramp.....

If you used a mouse to push down bins, they'd just fall back on the mouse.

Not if you hit the bins with enough speed. The momentum will carry over and knock it slightly off balance then making it sway which would help in the tipping proccess.

If you can figure out how to get your mouse on top of the bridge and then levitate your robot, your a better man than I am.

Re: Re: Not on top
 

The manual already says, "An additional 25 points will be awarded to each robot that is touching only the top of the platform at the end of a match."


The platform is 4 feet wide and 12 feet long. If you can't fit your robot on that... then tough luck. Besides, the robots are only supposed to be 3 feet maximum to begin with (you could drop down, but still you can fit your robot the width-way).

This would have been a great thing to be able to do, as many teams decided to do last year to get their robots in the scoring area. We were considering it, but now that we reviewed the rules it isn't allowed which makes it somewhat bad... yet for the other teams it give an advantage.

OK let me start by saying that the whole tether thing is a real sore point with me.

That said...now, Since the wording appears the same as last year, Mouse Bots should be legal. What good are they? They can run under a 13 inch bar, they can knock over stacks of bins, they can allow a robot to do two things at once.

At the 10 second mark, if the platform is the goal, you reel in the mouse bot like a hose reel. Otherwise you just leave it out there.

I am VERY VERY curious how the engineers are going to rule on tethers this year.
I hope they spell out exactly what will and will not be allowed BEFORE the robots ship.
There, I feel better

At the kickoff in SoCal today, we got a call from Woody where we could ask him questions and he stated that the entire robot must be on the platform to get the 25 pts. Also, what use would a mousebot be in this game? Can't use it in autonomus mode (hopefull got that right...not to good with words) and during the match, unless u could stabalize your bot on the ramp and allow the mouse bot to go and knock another stack, i dont see how its useful. They arent that strong and are pretty bad when it comes to handling. Anyways, thats just my opinion. They are legal but pretty much useless.

Our team does not start design until Monday but I was thinking the same as other people I have read above. A tether bot that goes and knocks down other team's crates would be nice to have but partly impractical. A robot that can knock down these crates would have to be more then the extra 2 pounds you happen to have left on your robot. The tether bot's weight would take away from the regular robots weight defeating the purpose of defending and destroying. Although If the Judges say no to a tether bot then removing it can be easily done between practice and competition but it would be bad if your entire strategy depends on that tether bot.

If what I said makes no sense, please guess at what I mean because it is late and I am tired and I am not thinking clearly.