broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

If a robot does not start moving during autonomous, it remains in the launchpad. The opponent payload specialist has 20 moon rocks ready to easily toss into the trailer. The toss is less than 3 feet to a fixed target.:(
If all the opponent's robots move, they are harder to hit. Simply keep moving, and let the score accumulate, but you will have an extreme difficulty overcoming the 60-point offset!!

Jerry

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

Look at it as an incentive to help out your alliance partners and make sure they're working before the match.

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

yes but remember, if the oppsoing alliance does this, and they happen to double or triple your alliance's score, they will be penalized the next match... with a super cell or empty cell being taken away from you (at least that's how i interpreted that rule)...

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

Unlike past years, adding an extremely basic "Drive straight for 15 seconds" autonomous is easy to do in both the programming environments.
PLUS, I'm sure there will be many "templates" provided by teams to do just this. (I'm going to post one)

Noone wants to be on an alliance this year with an NO-AUTO robot, so let's not let it happen. Last year it was a goal, this year it should be a MUST :)

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

I doubt that many players will "slow down" scoring to avoid that potential handicap :)

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

Agreed. Another "no robot left behind" program is a must.

Also, How about a simple spin in place program? Would probably be more difficult to hit. JMHO

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

Is it possible to spin in place while being attached to a trailer with 2 straight wheels? I realize that the conditions are "slippery" but are they that "slippery"

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

I was just thinking that a trailer full of moon rocks might not be as bad as having a super cell tossed in at the end. Do you think a trailer will hold 20 moon rocks?

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

If the CoF is truely .06 then the robot will have ~9 lbs of thrust (assuming 150 lbs of robot) and the trailer will have 1.2 lbs of traction and thus can be spun in place.

This all assumes you get off the carpeted area.

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

The issue that my team was talking about was not so much autonomous mode, but if the robot breaks or gets disabled at some point in the match. We're thinking of making an "emergency" mode, which could be used if the robot is basically uncontrollable which would just randomly pulse the drive motors so we wouldn't be quite an easy target

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

I was also thinking about this because of how many robots tend to not have an autonomous or consistent autonomous in the early regionals (wk 1-2). My theory was that even the most basic of drive straight for 2 seconds and drive backwards for 2 seconds and so on and so forth would be a decent defense. I know my team would be happy to help a team make a basic evasion program like that.

On the case of a broken robot, it's just a part of the game. Perhaps it was designed this way to promote helping of other teams.

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

i was thinking of this 2, personally im afraid of being on an alliance where your team mate throws a chain or loses batter, somway that renders it completely immobile.

then what, what keeps the oppent from dumping all the moon rocks and super cells in them? does hitting the disable button prevent this somehow:confused:

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

The number in each will remain the same, even if some are dumped. (so if for example you build a mechanism that would take balls out of the trailer, that would not subtract from the number in it.) As for if yours gets disabled, I'm not sure, but there may be an amendment to the rules that would make a disabled robot "off-limits" (perhaps the lights on the trailer will blink if it's disabled in this case, to make it easier to tell)

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

With the slippery surface I'm sure you'd be able to push them so they're in a less accessible spot.

Re: broken robot DOOMS an alliance
 

I would be extremely surprised to see a team with no autonomous capabilities this year. Also I dont think the trailer would even fit much over 16 moon rocks (even 16 is a huge score)
I think there is more worry for a broken robot in the middle of a round than for a robot without any auto program.