what type of robot will win the most?
 

robots who can place the ball on the overpass at the end of the match and who can put the ball over the overpass at a moderate-fast speed.

i believe these kind of robots will place first and win the championship as well

maybe with the help of a shooter.. but a team of shooters will loose compared to placers..

heres why.. shooters can easily be knocked out of place and hurl ball way off target just by pushing them, as well as most shooters not being able to knock the ball off the overpass in the beg.

there is a lot of flaws with shooters.. i just dont see them winning it all

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

All the robots win, because we built them and they work. ;)

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

i think this years game is based alot on the hybrid period the more you score in hybrid the more likely your going to win.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

First of all, If you knock of the shooters when they are hurdling, you get a 10 point penalty.
Second, Shooters can hurdle faster.

And third, Shooter have a low c of g and so they can drive around the track faster w/o tipping over.

and last, instead of putting the ball up, you can hurdle at the end of the game, and you only get 4 points less than the arms

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Shooters can do that..if they can get the ball down.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

no one said u cant push them around be4 they get the ball at all =D

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

also i predict within the first few regionals a lot of restrictions are going to be in affect with shooting or projectile robots due to the safety hazard...

if one robot turns by accident or releases the ball at the wrong time.. someone can get seriously hurt...

this worries me as well

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

It'll be challenging to push them around in hybrid mode. (that's when we're going to first get the ball)

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

All of the shooters that i have seen up to now can get the ball down
Including 1726, 842, 39, 375

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

We can get the ball during the hybrid mode as well :) :rolleyes:

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

ALSO u can push them around as much as u want, without pinning for more than 6 seconds as well as not high speed ramming for destruction..

but if u are moving them be4 they hurdle then it doesnt count as a penalty because they were already being moved

read between the lines.. and the fact that they hurdle faster means that i can drive in and push them around faster as well... their best offense.. is my best defense =D

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

I think shooters will do well because of speed of scoring. . but on that note the winning alliances WILL have robots the can place the ball at the end of the match

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

who says the shooters and the robots placing balls at the end won't be one and the same?

(we've done this constantly during testing)

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Dude... Have you read this year's rule book? Mainly the large section about defensive pushing being strictly not allowed? You might want to go read it... And if "they" can hurdle faster, it means a few things: They're fast driving, which means it's hard to catch them. Oh wait, defense is banned! Whoops! They're fast at scoring, which means they will hurdle a LOT.

My prediction is that the winning team will have two runners to bring the ball around, with one very quick hurdler sending the ball over the pass FAST, with some sort of shooting/throwing mechanism.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Hybrid, Hybrid, Hybrid. That term has certainly changed from last year. Bots that can consistantly score well in hybrid will go a long way. A prior post talked about removing a trackball during hybrid, what about a robot that can remove two trackballs in hybrid? You know you will see it happen. It is like any other year, certain bots will do well depending on the alliances they are with or against. The key to this year is controlled speed. I do not care if you are a lifter bot or some type of shooter for hurdling. You have to be stable and reasonably fast. Defense, well, chasing down trackballs that are being defensively pushed around will be difficult. A fast lifter/shooter bot that can possess the trackball quickly will do well. No matter how well you lift/shoot the trackball, you still have to get it off the floor. Placing is overated, unless you plan on staying put to guard your placed trackball, someone will come around and knock it down, remember, there is no protection while placing the trackball on the overpass. The benefit to placing is that you can do it on either overpass so that if you are stuck by the other teams overpass, you could place there. Otherwise, why not hurdle (protected) and zip over the finish line for almost the same points?

The best bot this year: Better than average hybrid, must be able to remove the trackball, must be able to hurdle quickly, must be able to retrieve the trackball off the floor quickly.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

i have... see what i love about teaching... u look AT the book.. not whats OUT of the book.. er.. box ;) maybe a hint... loop-holes rule

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Loop-hole? Let's hope that either: A) Your loophole is legitimate, or B) You're prepared to change your strategy/design on the fly in case it isn't legal.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

I think we may be on to something here...

I've been set from the beginning that an alliance with at least one non-hurdler will win, because the rules have not changed to allow 3 trackballs on the field. My opinion is unchanged until I see proof at a Regional that the non-hurdling bot is worthless.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Placing really should only be done in the last few minutes, or someone might knock the ball down. it's protected the same as hurdling, i believe - after all, who is going to say we're trying to place or hurdle until we actually finish the maneuver? for us, the two look exactly the same. Placing will come into play in two ways - first, it'll be a great way to score an extra 4 points at the end when your team might need it - although i expect the necessity of this will be limited. Second, it'll be a great way to score and extra 12 points at the very end when you don't have time to race halfway around the track to try to hurdle on your side. These situations will be much more frequent than the first, i think, mostly due to the fact that it's a lot of points where otherwise you'd get none at all.

Both ways, however, are very situation-dependent, and as such shouldn't be something a team counts on every game to score them points.

for the winning alliance, it'll be a combination of all types of robots, i think. You'll have one that races around the track very quickly, and thats all it does. The other two will be a trade off against hurdling speed and ball control speed. I have no doubt that there will be teams that will be great at both of these. But many more teams will be great at one, and only ok at the other, and an alliance with two of these teams will be much better balanced than an alliance with an all-star bot and two mediocre bots. And as always, there will be teams where everything doesn't come together like you would hope.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Please quote your rule sections:

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

I have thought from the very beginning that speedy robots will make that small difference and help their alliances win.

I still think that way.Since there are 2 balls and 3 robots one will have to do the laps and that is crucial.

It will be even more efficient during the hybrid mode.
If you can make many laps and fast you will score enough points to win the game even before it starts.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Scoring efficiently in this game is entirely dependent upon ball control. Teams will want to be in possession of the balls for as much of the match as possible so as to maximize opportunities to score. Teams that lose control of the ball for long periods of time will not do as well as those with methodical, repeatable scoring mechanisms.

Catapults hurdle faster than many arms might, but they impart a lot more energy unto the ball, making it considerably more time consuming and challenging to grab it again soon after. Arms and lifts, on the other hand, ought to balance potentially longer hurdle times with better efficiency in repossessing the balls. There is one catapult I've seen so far that effectively mitigates the problems with grabbing the ball -- 118. How and why I think that's true is left as an exercise to the reader. :)

Teams that cannot hurdle will only be effective if they can possess the trackball -- not herd it -- and release it from their grasp in short, controlled bursts as it crosses the finish line. Anyone that's kicking the ball down the field and chasing after it is wasting precious time.

Also, I largely think that running laps is a waste of time. One robot on each alliance ought to be running defense. Reducing the efficacy of a hurdler is much easier and much more effective than running a lap, both in terms of time required and its effect on the final score.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

I've been seeing a lot of 118-style grabber-catapults on CD...theirs is the most effective design I've seen so far, I think

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

:cool: one that is fast, low center of gravity but can still control the ball enough to hurdle. and i don't think that the reracking points will count that much because u can always nock their ball back off of the overpass the other direction so they don't get the hurdling points.:cool:

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

I think he was probably refering to <G42> In the first sentence, aggressive is probably redundant, since it is already outlawed in <G37>. However, overt and blatant contact is also not allowed while in the act of HURDLING. To me, that disallows all contact based defensive strategies (IE push them so the shoot the ball into the crowd instead of over the overpass).

The only question is the last part of the last sentence "otherwise engaged in normal game play". Since pushing has been a part of normal game play in the past, does that mean it is allowed this year. It really comes down to a matter of interpretation, and I haven't really seen a clarification in the Q/A

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

shooters are going to be way more efficent than an arm bot... reasons... we can it from hurdle from basically anywhere in our home zone, and we dont need to stop moving to hurdle we can just keep going full speed at all time!

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

Hey if u built a robot and it is shipped out at the date then you are a winner already...at competition if you win and go to atlanta that is a great add on bonus

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

shooters will hands down be more efficient than using an arm....however, that wont be the issue. The issue will be grabbing control of the ball and putting yourself in a position to score. BUT, arms will no doubt be able to place and knock over balls from the overpass.
I think what makes the difference is during the hybrid/auto mode. If a team can take a 20+ point lead prior to tele op period, it will be hard to overcome.
I dont think running around a track can overcome any hurdler one on one.:D

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

And here I think will be the downfall of most catapult bots. When I see you coming around the corner full speed intending to hurdle, why on earth wouldn't I leave my robot somewhere in that last stretch so that you have to maneuver around me or even have to bump me to get through, throwing off your practiced timings and forcing your drivers to try to compensate on when to shoot? If two robots are shooting from the same position on the field, but one is at a dead stop and the other is moving at 15 ft/sec., the trajectory of their projectiles will be far different.

The best catapult bots will have drivers who know how to use their robot coming in at any speed at any angle. The others will be launching their ball short of or into the overpass, and maybe even out of the playing field, when opposing robots begin to take up space in the home stretch.

Re: what type of robot will win the most?
 

It would be quite obvious that you are not hurdling when placing the trackball on your opponents overpass. And, I agree that all placing will take place in the last few (two) minutes. It just might be better to do it in the last few seconds. Don't you hate it when your fingers do not type what your mind is telling them to do? I know that my fingers do that all the time.