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.

With these bins though it doesn't seem like it'd be too hard to break right through them if you hit them too fast, especially if they're cold.

Also the mouse would have to be larger than those of last year to have much momentum. These bins weigh 4.885lbs without the rivets and they flex. Mice really don't seem that useful.

Hehe I found a loophole.
Well unless your robot is a hover craft.

A hovercraft that works when the robot's diabled at the end of the match?

and the loophole is closed:)

Think Outside the box.

Imagine 2 robots 60 pounds each that are connected by a tether.

On each side, one knocks down boxes, one defends, OK I realize the weight disadvantage of 60 verses 130 but I bet you could give a pretty good defense.

Again, as for the ramp you just Reel in the mouse to get 100% on the platform.

2 60 pound robots may be able to defend the platform better than 1 130# bot...that would need to be tested of course

wow. That's a good thought. two small bots instead of 1 big one.

and to fix the size constraint you might have you could make it so the teather parks itself on top of the main bot in the end, I suppose :)

At kick off, Dave Lavery said (and I misquote) that, if two robots were "stacked" the top robot takes on the attributes of the bottom robot. Ie. if the bottom robot is on the ramp, then so is the top one. If the bottom robot is off the ramp, then so is the bottom one.

In the event that a robot fragments, the "robot" is considered to be the part that contains the robot controller.

Hence, if a bot "splits" and the bit that contains the robot controller ends up on a robot that is on the ramp, both robots should count as being on the ramp. (I suspect that they will clarify to make this illegal, however.)

But, you could imagine a "mouse bot" that is everything except the robot controller. Put the RC part on your partner who drives on the ramp. Your 120lb "mouse bot" can go have a ball and not worry about getting back to the ramp.

Andrew
Team 356

I posted a similar question in a different thread, but thought it might be answered quicker here......

isn't there enough room for all four robots on the platform???

if so... then what is the need to park on top of someone elses robot?

Umm. In short, don't assume that all of the robots will end up in the same position they started in. Some may be quite a bit larger.

Two things

First, every year they talk about robots getting lifted up on top of things (and no one builds such things)
I believe thats where trhe comment was coming from. At one point they had even included a stretcher in the game (also never used) to try to get this stuff to happen

Second. I believe 100% of the robot needs to be on the ramp. According to the rules that is.
So the idea of a 10 # brain and 120# platform wouldn't be that useful in this circumstance (But thats a neat idea)

Also I think you can fit 4 robots up there is 12 foot long. Of course it won't be a cooperative venture so I think we won't see that occuring that often

BTW I found teh bins (whatever they are gonna be called) at Walmart for $3.90 a piece I bought all 40 of the color in the game

My idea for a tether was at first to try to climb on the opponenents robot. But I have figured out that this would gain me no points. But since being on top doesn't count, imagine a tether that can slide under a part of the opponenets robot and partially lift it to negate the points. This may be illegal too, but I don't see a why you could climb on top of another bot, potential damaging it and not pick it up from underneath.

wouldn't the idea be to NOT let the other team park their robot on the platform as well? even if all 4 robots CAN fit on the top, i'm sure someone will try to push another robot off..

by parking a robot on top of someone else's, it makes the entire robot heavier, causing a greater normal force, resulting in more friction...
if you are on another team's robot, (i'm not sure how the scoring goes there...) then u cause them to consider moving out of or staying on the platform