Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

You'll just have to watch team 314 and see!

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

be very mindfull of single point failures that will disable your machine, or that will disable more than one function.

Steering is a good example. If you have a two wheel bot, that steers like a tank - then you have two (potentional) drive motors, but if one fails you cannot steer - all you can do is spin in circles - so a single failure cost you both motion AND steering

but if you add a third wheel and a steering mechanism, then if one of your wheel motors fails you can still move AND steer - and there will be almost no load on your steering motor, so the chance of it failing is much lower - but even if it does fail you only loose one function, steering. Your bot will still be able to move forward and back - and maybe with tank control of the two drive motors you could still steer a little.

Redundancy is a powerful design concept.

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

True that. True that. But I'm not worried about it getting damaged because we are not playing Battlebots! :D

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

The keyword was: Robust

There is always the possible shoving match, things do break, thats what these 6 weeks and the pits are for, the intent to damage shouldnt be present but you know things happen, just plan ahead, its not an uncommon site

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

maybe damaged is the wrong word to use. Failing is more likely to be a problem. These machines we create are hand built one of a kind prototypes - subsystem failures are common during a match - parts break under strain, fasteners come loose, pnuematics develope leaks, motors burn out, all the noise leaks out of your bearings...

thats why single function subsystems is an Engineering Golden Rule - it was learned the hard way - it was learned at great expense - its tempting to think the Golden Rules dont apply to me for some reason

thats why we have then etched in Gold :c)

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

Trust me! *evil grin* I'm not worried about that!

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

Well, I think the hanging is more important than the 2X balls. :cool:

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

6 starting balls + 2x = 60 points, more than hanging.

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

Even though we arnt playing battlebots, a ton of damage is still done to robots during the competition. Whether it be a shoving match for a mobile goal, or the bar, or a malufunction in the autonomous code, or falling from the bar, robots can suffer some pretty harsh blows. I have thought of some ways to accomplish both tasks, but i personally dont really want the bar anyway, so ive put more thought into the ball part of it. Simple things, such as a broken braze, could put your robot, or a function of it, such as driving, out of comission. Any1 who was at the VCU(richmond) regional last year, we were the robot that had the crappy swinging arm and didnt move most the competition, and also placed dead last. A braze broke in our custom gearbox, which we only had to braze the part because of a shipping error, and immobolized one side of the robot. Thats an example of how a small thing can cost you big.

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

You didnt count the 30 points that the other alliance would start with.
So 30+50=80 compared to 30+2x=60
Hanger wins (In this scenario)

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

Let's say that both teams split the balls evenly(24 5 pts, 2 10 pts) and score every1 of them. Alliance 1 get 2 2x balls, while Alliance 2 gets 2 hanging robots. The score:
Alliance 1-280
Alliance 2-240

The mult. balls win.

Re: Hanging vs. Manipulating 2x balls
 

I'm in team 842 and I would like to know of any ideas on how to make an arm the can make you hang on the bar. If you have any ideas that you would like to share please send me an e-mail at dude__hi@hotmail.com. Thankyou