Everyone is bashing the suction cup bots. We have not been moved after deploying the cups. If you do it correctly it works.
Our team pushes down our cups, starts a vacuum pump on them, and after 2 seconds pull them back up. You aren't moving us, period.

Way to brag dubes... way to brag

Check out the picture, 190 couldn't push us off so they resulted to climbing on top (our robot definately SUCKS!)

ByE

erin

I think the value of stacking still has not been determined. Watching VCU, there just weren't enough ATTEMPTS at stacking for people to decide on its effectiveness. Many teams just didn't try even though their robot was built for it! I think that rather than stacking being a problem, it was an error on the robot's part.

Ball grabbers last year who were truly effective such as 121 (heh, nice to drive with you guys at nationals) were rare but their potential in a game and consistency was unrivaled. They won matches and they won them big. I expect big, experienced teams this year to be able to dominate whatever strategy they happen to have chosen. Whether it's KoH or stacking, each provide great ways of winning or getting points but require a robot that can do it. Being the first qualifying day of the first regional, it is expected that many team have not completely finished and perfected their robot. Going to two or more regionals will definitely affect robot performance in the stacking area. I believe by the end of the month around the time of the Canadian regional, stackers will be dominant in getting points.

That's just my thoughts on this at midnight.

Dubreuil:

I am fairly sure this is in violation of rule m12.

You might want to fix it before you go on, just so that you stay within the rules.

Back on topic:

What are the average top of the ramp times? No boasts, only facts please.

Jeff_Rice-

An air cylinder generates the vacuum.

Team Update 10:
PAGE 19, RULE M12
Discussion:
In order to facilitate the use of off-the-shelf suction cups, especially those with built-in
fittings, connections or supply tubing, additional fittings such as reducers and connectors will
be permitted to connect the suction cup to the ¼” tubing supplied in the 2003 Kit of Parts.


Our suction cups have built in fittings. No one said that we could not connect a vacuum to the built in fitting on our prefab suction cups. Still think its in violation?

So its half an hour into the second day and I'm seeing the same things as before. I'm bot sure what match it is at BuckEye but MadCow tipped over and a team forgot to plug in there bot (no matter how good you are most veteran teams will not select a team that does that). It seems a general consensus that stacker is a wate of time, maybe that desrves it own thread....

Anyway someone mentioned damage, and this round I can clearly see the end of someones arm hanging by it wires. Are there any midday inspections of these highly damaged bots? 1) to check for safetly and 2) make sure the teams don't add weight in repairs?

Are there any true rampdoms competing this weekend such as technokats, clarkson, or swampthing? I ask because I've been keeping count of traffic over the ramp and not counting the initial bash there are on average 5 movements over the ramp pre match and this would make a rampdom have a tremendous effect on the game.

Are the crates getting broken to the extent everyone thought they would? Its probobly the low quality of the webcast but i haven't seen any shatter yet.

I almost forgot has anyone kept track of a pattern between hitting the wall first and winning?

Good Luck to all the CD addicts who will check the posts today even when there at competions.

It's not that robot's can't stack, its just that its a waste of time to take half the match to build a 8 high stack when a lowrider can take it down in 15 seconds. There is just too much else to do.

What else is there to do, exactly?

Move bins, stack, defend stacks, defend bins, and sit atop the ramp. . . .

It seems to me that the webcast regionals were nothing more than, for the most part, robots running around doing absolutely nothing at all. There wasn't strategy or teamwork, it seemed. Just chaos.

http://www.soap108.com/2003/movies/oh/

in the video: oh_qf3m1
when 830 tips towards the end of the match, you can see a pretty broken box. (Thank team SOAP and NASA for recorded webcasts)
(the best way to get the video is right click on it, then pick "save target as" and save it somewhere than open it).

That bot was #85 BOB (Bots with Brains), and I couldn't really tell either, but it didn't really look like it stuck.

I stand corrected. I thought you meant you were using a separate off the shelf pump to generate vacuum in your suction cups.

Good luck!

Anybody got those ramp times?

Well, that's no problem for us. Our robot accidentally fell off the table during testing and it didn't even leave a scratch. Not even a dent in the steel.

After watching pieces of the VCU regional, I was very suprised to see virtually no stacking attempts, with the exception of bots picking bins up and holding them (were there mechanical problems or something?). Am I totally missing something? Maybe the "stacking is useless" rumor has been convincing teams to not even try? Perhaps drivers don't have enough practice and their stacking mechanism needs fine tuning? Does it just take too much time for some teams? Could it be that its so confusing in the alliance station that drivers are distracted?

Even stacks of 2 could sway the results of some matches I've seen (and I know we can reliably make them in less than 10 seconds, even with poorly-oriented bins and harrasement). Stacks of 3 would be even more important. Teams could even increase their multiplier stack while the opponents are elsewhere.

Maybe I'm simply in denial.

Greg

Our team had a stacking device during pratice, but our driver had a hard time getting our hooks under the boxes, plus we had a ton of power in our drive system which made us do wheelies, and the lifting device made us fall on our back. Immediately after practice rounds ended, we took off the device and put a wedge on, which is very effective if your bot is powerful like our. Our bot actually lifted the arena off the ground during a practice round when our auto. went to wrong way

Ha. I remember that. One minute it's on the table the next, I was screaming :D...not a single scratch or dent....amazing.

Heh.... I drove our bot off a table last year. No problems.