Wow. Beautiful machine. Consider me jealous.


Also, I have thought about it, and I have decided, that if some robots choose to go under that bar, back up, get some speed going, that arm isn't going to stop them very well.

We are hoping teams go this approuch. Not to damage the arms but to try and figure out the best approuch to get across or under. I believe that almost the entire team would agree that they hope to be damaged every match. The more damage the better. If a team wanted to break the entire arm off I don't believe you would hear objections because of the design of the robot and the way we plan to play ALMOST every match.

Honestly, I think that you have been far to optimistic in your design. I know that we will easily push ur arms into the field barriers and cause u penalties. I also could not imagine how ur arms will stand up to the rigors of a competition with 12ft/sec veteran robots. I just think you guys went to far.

Tethers yes
 

I know that as a team we are having a hard time understanding how someone is having such a problem with the rules after 6 weeks of knowing them... I will be up front with you on this, as one of people who thought this idea up, there are ways to beat this design and out score our team. Your challenge is now to discover how to. Its not all that hard to figure out how to.... and traction power is not needed... see you at competition.

yeah...
 

those bars have to be Al pipes by the look of them, otherwise my guess is they would be overweight. All and all it does look rather heavy...that weight had to come from someplace.

How good is your traction and how does your autonomous program run? Line tracking dead reckoning by voltage or what?

Re: yeah...
 

They are made from Aluminum. We actually had to add weight because we were about 30 pounds under weight.

Great traction!! The autonomous mode has a couple different selections, however the way the program runs... well I guess maybe we use about 5 different methods and then take an average. Sound about right Alex?

i hate to be the devil's advocate, but i will have to agree that your method of reacting with the alley barriers might cause you some penalties.

if it comes to where a robot pushing you begins to damage the field, they will more than likely disable you instead of the bot pushing. it's technically your robot causing the damage.

i don't disagree this is indeed a very amazing robot. i merely wanted to warn you of what i think could seriously hinder your progress in the competitions.

*jeremy

I will have to disagree with the fact that they will disable our robot because what is to gain by doing it... The field althought being damaged by our arm, it is the force exerted by the other robot that will continue to be doing the damage. However if they disable other team the damage will stop, becuse without outside intervention out robot does not damage the field in any way. Therefore I believe that it is the other robot that will be disabled.

A few questions
 

I have a few questions for you guys, but first off, you guys did a great job designing your robot. What you guys have is one heck of a brilliant design. You guys took the rule book and said:"We can't brace ourselves on the stupid plexiglass sides, eh? That's okay, we didn't need 'em in the first place!" Kudos to you guys. Now to my questions:
1. What is the clearence of your arms over the HDPE?
2. What is your guy's estimated top speed?
3. How long does it take to deploy your arms?

If one of T3 guys could answer these it'd be greatly appreciated.

It doesn't mean they have to disable your bot.


Last year much of the time they just waited until the end of a match to disqualify a team.

Pushing and lifting
 

Since the triangular arm that ur outriggers fold out from ("wing sheaths") are a few inches of the ramp (~12in i figure from picture) it would be very easy for bots to combine a push with a upward lifting force on these arms . In this situation very little force will actually opposes the bot pushing you (your wheel base is off ramp). The reactionary force supplied by ur outriggers reacting against the mid-barrier will become a torque (instead of opposing pushing) which will be added to the torque of the bot pushing and lifting ur bot. This could cause ur bot to tip over in an incredibly spectacular fall.

With the number of pushers with wedges and forklift stackers i expect to see in this competition, many bots should have the potential to do this. I wouldn't rely on the refs to DQ a bot for flipping u, since u are pretty much fair game on top of the ramp and ur outriggers technically flipped u as much the other bot. U might want to figure out a design mod (suction cups maybe) to combat this strategy.

As for the notion that another bot will be disabled for pushing against u and ur arms damaging the playing field, that probaly will not happen. If the refs are anything like last year, T3 bot will be DQed for any playing field damage. MOEhawk was DQed for bunching the carpet when other robots pushed on our well anchored bot. No damage would have occurred if the the other bot hadnt pushed on a system that takes over 500lbs of force to overcome static friction. They actually caused more damage to the carpet by spinning wheels while pushing. We had 4 or more DQs last year while our opponents had 0 DQs.

I will have to disagree with you and agree with my brother of course. It will depend on the defination of what caused the field to fail. Since the force came from the opponents robot, I would DQ that team, even though that force was acting through a portion of our teams robot that wasn't ever meant to touch the bar in that manner. Also what if we simple lefted the arms for the robots to go under? We don't intend to stop robots, that wasn't what the design called for. The game isn't to stop robots and this team's plan is to follow what the game was intended for, that is to play with the containers. Think about it.... there is no need to stop robots once you are on top of the ramp from going under the bar. So if we were to get DQ I would have to say the only way that would happen is if we attached ourself to the bar, which isn't what we are doing. If you push into our arms, you only have 10 seconds and then you have to back away or be DQ for pinning.

I doubt they'd DQ a team for shoving another bot, that would be like DQ 2 teams if the both rushed the ramp and crushed half the crates. I'd be more about bots bashing the arms into paperclips or not being perfectly aligned. The only rule violation I see is the wedge rule. The rule states you can't interact with more than 1 surface to form an impassible barrier so if both of your 3rd stages touch the bars then that may be breaking that rule. Other than that its looks very professional.

So, do you care if you score or not?
 

Very nice design. Just one thought...

Are you guarding the ramp the whole time? No prob. We will grab bins, run up the ramp, and fling them to our side, to make sure we have one point more. All graciously professional, of course.

Go Sparky! Team 384
Dave.

I don't know About all that
 

The robot is quite interesting in that it reveals a lot about the way you guys analyze a problem. It is a great plan, HOWEVER... The rule that says that you may not push off of a midfield barrier to gain an advantage definitely comes into play. When a bot tries to get over the ramp and hits you, you redirect the force to the midfield barrier, hence reacting on the barrier. It also means that you are pushing against a midfield barrier to gain an advantage.