Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Everyone on our team is worried about our seemingly high center of gravity. It's been a long time since we build a robot with a high center of gravity (not since 2000, but we all know how that worked out..) and we're generally worried about tipping. Theoretically, if our arm is in the closed position during a fall, we should be able to push ourselves back up and keep on driving. We'll see.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

We passed on the ball corral system but our arms make for good impromtu ball corrals.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

:eek: If this is what you actually did, you took quite a risk. Check robot section 5.2.5, R09. "Teams must fabricate and/or assemble all custom parts and assembled mechanisms on the robot by the 2004 team after the start of the Kick-off."

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Oh my Gosh.........18 pounds!

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Our robot did not sacrifice much of anything, and we can do everything well. It is possible to do many things well if you have the right will to do it. Set a goal, then figure out how to do it, don't just dismiss something because at first it may seem complex. Remember for every complex problem there is a simple, elegant answer that performs exceptionally well.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Isn't that against the rules?
Thought you were not to design/build anything prior to kick-off.
If that's the case you will have a hard time moving your implements around the field without a drivetrain.....


Phil

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Uh, yeah, guys, you can't do that. That's VERY illegal to the nth degree. :eek: Unless you said something wrong....

As for Dave Lavery and his KK.... lets go back one year to the 2003 VCU Regional....

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

I think it is ok to design something before the kickoff, as long as every part of the bot has been built after it. I even believe that (practically) testing ideas in the off-season is ok - again, as long as none of those parts make it onto to competition bot (unlike the ideas). Otherwise you'd have to empty your brain of any memories from previous year's designs, which is difficult to do.

Sacrifice: We sacrificed hanging and climbing, and instead decided that control of the small balls is cruical. After all, if we manage to steal all the competitor's balls, they can get 100 pts at max. get 11 of those balls into a goal, and cap it - there we go!

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Heh... we currently sacrificed.... our drivetrain. We are capable of moving..... in a straight line.... very slowly..... If we try to turn, we get loads of nasty grinding noises as one of our eight chains self destructs.... However, we have a quick fix in mind, and all the parts are ready to go, as soon as we get to a comp, we think we can fix it.... We think. We tried a little more than we have ever done before this year, and it paid off handsomely, except when it comes to our drivetrain. Live and learn, I suppose. See you all at comp!

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

the only thing we sacrificed is herding balls well the front of our robot will do it but we dont have a specific thing for it. we didnt sacrfice anythign on ground clearance our robot sits lower then any other of our past year robots 1' in of the ground but we can still get up the 6 in step

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

To clarify...

We didn't actually build it. No metal working was done. No machining, nothing. We thought about it, drew plans, etc. No actual building. Slip of the fingers. Sorry if that came out differently than it really was.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

We Sacrified too much time developing and agreeing on a strategy, which, in the end, we weren't able to accomplish due to too much time spent developing and agreeing on a strategy.
....

sooooo.... due to weight we changed the manipulator designs at the last minute. Our drive system, electronics (with battery), and frame weigh a combined 97 pounds (without skins). Our old manipulator weighed 31 pounds, deweighted, and it was not in complete working order. We COULD have put it on, but it would have been very difficult and time-consuming to remove weight from the rest of the robot.

So we went with something more simple that seems to be good to go, but we didn't get any practice time with it. We do know we can grab and hang, though, and get rid of 2x balls... oh, and we're annoyingly fast and versatile on the field. heh, we find that climbing the 6" platform is significantly easier than taking the stairs.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Well.. At first we decided to sacrifice hanging. However the chasis was still made to be able to climb the platform. We spent the majority of the 6 weeks building and designing the 2x ball handler. In the end, the night before our scrimmage we added the hook that was designed a week prior, and tested the hook out at the scrimmage. So it would turn out that the hook worked better then the 2x ball handler! Since then we replaced our "gripping tongs" with different grippers that work better. So I'm not sured what we sacrificed all together, we can do pracitly everything on the field, but what we do best is hanging. :cool: And the one thing we concentrated on the most is 2x ball handler.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

we sacrificed being able to go up the 6'' platforms.. took off our tread subsystem after we learned it hurt us more than aided us.. we'd rather go with a low drivetrain instead of having something sticking out at risk of flipping.

the second major sacrifice we made was picking up the 2x balls- we can stuff them in and push them out, but can't actually grab them. Instead we focused on the 2x balls' smaller cousin.

Re: What did your robot sacrifice for First Frenzy?
 

Well, we decide to pass on manipulation of the 2X balls. (as well as the 10 point balls)

Out main attention is to hanging, and a strong/fast drivetrain.

The idea is to build a solid base deisign for future years. Yes, this is perhaps NOT the srt of game that requires powerful, but THIS was the year for us to do that work.

I hope to see some of you at the Manchester NH BAE Regionals! :ahh:

-Quentin