2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

O.K., Here is the real 2009 ThunderChicken robot: Roxxy.

Turreted shooter with 20 ball capacity. No human load. Empties in anywhere between 3 and 5 seconds depending upon the condition of the balls.

Paul

P.S. - The one pictured before is rookie team 3069's robot.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Hehehe, can I have the other one Paul? Pretty pleeeease. Tell 3069 that they made a robot that will put up a strong fight as well (as long as there's ample supply of Magic and Win in their compressed Wintanks)

Roxxy looks like a friggin beast! Awesome job from the folks over on 217. Curious as to why human load was written off from the robot. What was the design process that went into this. Any design process info would be great please.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Yes, much more of what we expected. That's one sic looking machine.

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*sniff* it's beautiful :)

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Haha, great job and one purrty robot.

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lookin good, yeah i didnt think that last one was really a thunder chicken bot

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Very beautiful, but I am partial to blue :)

Looks like the "shooter/ dumper" contest is significantly ratcheted up...

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Wow, cool looking robot once again. Just out of curiosity, what is the drivetrain on your robot, it is tucked in tight and i cant figure it out?

I just realized today is 2-17, great job on picking the best day to post your picture

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

So i wore my thunder chickens shirt today, wondering when the real robot would appear.

That is so more like it. 217, you nearly let me down. So what's with the color scheme? I miss the green... And would it be too much to ask for a video?

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Human loading was written off for two reasons, #1 we didnt feel it was the best option because of the limited number of balls, with ground load we can use more than our 20 balls and can pick up any misses, #2 when you are human loading you are a sitting target and we have all seen what some of these power dumpers can do to a sitting chicken.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Well it looks like we have triplets now. I'm glad we all decided subconsciously to collaborate through esp :cool:

Anyways great looking bot! I think it will do awesome.

I know the reason we scrapped human loading is that it is pretty much impossible with a helix design as there really is no space plus at least for our bot it is faster just to suck the balls up. I'm sure the thunderchickens have a killer intake roller

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

That's a beautiful robot! and it looks strikingly similar to another one I've seen somewhere.....

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

You could always push rocks under the air lock with the claw to feed the roller.

I don't see anything in the rules against this.

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How funny would it be if this was a decoy as well. :P

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Very Funny, Nice job 217. looks like another winner. We are using our small hopper as a rebounder just like in the 2006. I am loving the Bot, are those blue rails anodized?

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Sure looks like it.

Paul,
Can I get a shirt this year?

-Glenn

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

You know, after what I saw at the scrimmage this weekend, I like the first bot pictured better. The bot with that system was kicking our butt. lol

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I'm willing to wager that there shooter bot will have even more butt-kicking ability. It is the Thunderchickens after all.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Ahh, so you've been..... THUNDERSTRUCK! (yeah, yeah, yeah....):yikes:

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

As I have told someone on my team many many times, it doesn't matter who we are, but how we play the game. Sure they may have a great track record in the past, but this could (and I emphasize could) be the year that they don't do so hot. I know that the TechnoKats have been though this before, and it sucks, but it can happen. Plus remember that the shooter bot is much more complex than the dumper bot, this means more can go wrong, that that it will, but that it can.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Now that would be funny... (the absence off any shade of green on it makes me wonder)

but whos ever it is i want to see some video.

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I'm going to have to disagree with the complexity statement, at least in its entirety. The only "dumper" robots this year that I have seen that look like they could truly decide a match I would not classify as simple. They all have multiple belt runs, custom transmissions, rollers, and structures, a helix, etc. These are not simple machines and have just as many possible places to fail. There are other "dumpers" that are simple, but IMO these will not be particularly effective. Any dumper that takes more than 2 seconds to dump 10 balls or so seems to be out of luck since they rely on being next to another robot. I stand by my statement that both shooters and dumpers will be equally effective this year so long as they are built to maximize there strengths. I also believe that a combination of the 2 types is truly the most effective.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

It's a beautiful bot and seems to have the potential to go very far, but why does it have to be gator colored. :(

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Still waiting for the REAL real 2009 Thunderchickens robot...

:rolleyes:

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I have to admit, the lack of green actually makes me more suspicious of this one than I was the first bot. Plus, I decided to trust Paul last time. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice... still shame on me actually... wait... I think I messed that up. :o

Whether this be the real 217 bot or another team's robot, it's looking pretty sweet and I'm sure it will be a beast. (though I think if 3069 get's some drive practice in they'll be doing pretty well too.)

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

that is a cool helix. it makes me dizzy :]


how accurate is that shooter, software and all?

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Another sweet machine from camp poultry! Paul, congrats to the whole 217 crew on this one.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Don't even need to use the tongs to do it: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=11987

And you know, I didn't think that other robot was so shabby. Great job again making your own robot while helping another team.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Just remember that 1511's robot is called the ThunderPlucker...... :)

Great looking bot!

Cheers,

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

The more I see of these teams going to Midwest, the more convinced I am that this regional has the potential to be legendary. Absolutely awesome looking robot by the Thunderchickens. I can't wait to see it live.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Well, hook line and sinker you got me. My original commet was I bet they stuck some bumers on the rookie teams bot they were helping with. Then with the flurry of powered dumpers hitting the pages and filling goals faster than a 12 row combine, well I thought maybe they might be on to something.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

I have to agree about MWR - could be epic. Let's just hope it is not epic due to the new field SW.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

I beg to differ. One very prominent helix loaded team will definitely prove that statement wrong.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

I think he was referring to helical "loaders" (where the balls enter the scoring mechanism directly from the helix, such as 217) rather than helical "hoppers" (where the balls are stored in a helix, such as 148). He didn't articulate any difference though, so your statement is still very true.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

MWR should sell ad time between the finals matches. While not quite the superbowl, I am sure there will be a lot watching if it is on the Web or TV.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

So I kept staring at this photo, because something looked off to me, and I couldn't figure out what. I mean, it looks like one heck of a robot, but for some reason it still wasn't screaming "ThunderChickens!" to me when I looked at it... and I just finally realized, it's not ThunderChicken green. (Yes, ThunderChicken is the name of a shade of green. Ask Crayola about it.) It was the color scheme that threw me off. But yeah... I'm excited to see that robot on the field!

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

There seems to be a great deal of speculation about whether or not this bot is our actual bot. Yes I know it is missing our trademark Thunder Chicken green. I should tell you that the bumpers are in fact the standard, retina scorching, Thunder Chicken green. There is a reason we decided to avoid green elsewhere. We wanted to assure that our color scheme would not interfere in any way with the cameras of other bots, speculative or otherwise. This is why the flex loom leading to the turret is black.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Once again you guys did great.

when your fake bot pic came out we discussed that it couldn't be your bot.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

We didn't even discuss it, we just laughed

;)

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Well there you go.

Our team has a PS hopper. We probably won't use it.

We were able to shovel balls through the Air lock to our roller. It was MUCH faster and safer then trying to shoot them in. You can even make a pile, and push them in all at once, en-mass :D

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

That was the whole point of our first thread. Anyone who actually thought that robot was ours, just doesn't know us at all.

Keeping on track ... Mike beat me to the punch. We are very concerned that our green will be perceived to interfere with the camera. As such, we have limited our TC green to only the bumpers (believe me, it is enough) and behind the numbers that are cut into the drive base.



We also have very cool flex loom (that Mike referred to) in TC green, but decided to leave it off since it is right at the height of the camera.

Moving on ... Jason pointed out our theory on human loading. We chose human over picking up in 2006. We chose floor over human this year. We have limit ourselves from doing everything since 2005 (for reasons why, look at our 2004 robot) and doing both was discussed, but ultimately cut out. We think that a sitting chicken has no place in this game. 254, 111, and 148 have all reinfoced this thinking. Week 1 should prove us right or wrong either way.

I also think the variance between traditionally powerful teams in basic robot construction type is a sign that there may be a larger range of successful strategy variances this year. We are very excited to be at Midwest next week and can hardly wait.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

I think this has been the most interesting part of seeing all of the highly anticipated robots this season. There is tremendous variety in design when, initially, it seemed as if people thought there'd be none at all. It goes to show that what may be an obvious solution to one is not an obvious solution to all.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Yes Cory I was talking about having a roller directly feed a helix from the ground. With this design as well as ours it would be virtually impossible to add a human loading portion due to the balls being fed through the roof into the shooter. It would be possible to add a big helix around the bot but then you would introduce the possibility of jamming for the balls that are human loaded.

Also as has already been pointed out, with robots like yours and 148 if any team stops to human load, they will have already lost to you guys. I honestly see no reason to attempt to human load. The human player will better spend there time by trying to make balls on the opposing teams trailers. Plus it is not difficult at all to make a roller to suck up balls. There's enough balls that we didn't feel it would be an issue searching for balls...that is of course unless you guys haven't sucked up half of the fields balls.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Hopefully without further derailing this thread, I do see a point to human loading.
A well-timed human load can be safe for being filled up (or at least significantly scored on), and much quicker than hunting balls around the field. More importantly, it can be done about as far away from the opposing human players as you can get.
The balls you load from it can then be scored with more success (hopefully) than your HP can (although this will not always be the case), especially given the ability of a robot to score on any portion of the field (versus HPs who will be better when robots are nearby).
Granted, I wouldn't want this as my only loading option, and it isn't the only loading option of 254, 968, or 148. Human loading does present some obvious risks to being pinned, scored on, and/or being "trapped" in a corner of the field (tactically, not physically).

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

I'm not sure if it's been said;

But is your camera mounted to a different base then the turret?
If so how do you plan to hit a moving target?

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Phew! Good thing your sheet metal finally got through. I like Plan A.

Looks like a great machine Paul, but who would expect anything less from 217. I know she'll definitely "win her share".

So... do they let robots like this outside Michigan? I'm not familiar with the new rules. It might be safer for the rest of us if they don't. :p

Everyone loves a robot with a Nonagon on her.
I've heard Nonagons are good luck and that every robot that ever had a Nonagon on her won Championship. ;)

Looking forward to seeing her in Chicago next week!
-John

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

To those of you that don't know, team 148 and team 217 are great friends. 217 thought it would pay a special tribute to 148 by putting a nonagon on our robot. The spinning drum is actually a nonagon.

Why pay tribute? 217 receives all of their sheet metal from 148 and has been since 2006.

I thought would especially like the "we didn't receive our sheet metal" comment from the other thread .

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

In very few words, you tell a spellbinding story to the members of the CD community. We learn about mutual respect, historical impact, and how to bring those to the robot design and build. And then you share it. I'm glad there is now another nonagon and that it will be present during the entire 2009 season, becoming a part of history and continuing the legacy of mutual respect and impact.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

John,

Isn't that why your robot has one on it?

We gotta figure out where to put the nonagon you sent us now...

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Hey, I want a nonagon.

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must wiki magical effects of nonagon....I no that dodecagon drum equals getting hit a crapload in 2006. Sounds like we had 3 sides too many...

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We've got 0.4 lbs to play with...I'll have to get the kids away from their girlfriends and families for a night but with this logic how could they refuse?

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Clearly there is an explanation:
http://www.numeralgame.64g.ru/num/num5en.htm
If you read down for the part about the nonagon it follows:
"This astrological aspect corresponds to numerological number 9 and a geometrical figure of nonagon. Specifies that interaction of heavenly bodies is caused by mutual reconciliation as the appropriate goddess Aphrodite has reconciliatory force of love. "

And we all know that "Love conquers ALL"

Also notice that if you take the first and last numbers of 148 and 217 and add them together you get 1+8=9 and 2+7=9.

Therefore clearly 148 and 217 have stumbled upon winning design parameters.


Now if you will give me your debit card numbers, I can show you another magic trick.

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

9*217=1,953 1+9+5+3=18 1+8=9!!!
9*148=1,332 1+3+3+2=9!!!

217's rookie year was 1999

148's record in 2008 was 41-9

Number of wheels on 217's 2008 bot, 6.
Number of wheels on 148's 2008 bot, 3.
3+6=9

Only time the 1114/217/148 lost on Einstein, the score was 134 to 118.
1+3+4+1+1+8=18 1+8=9

HOLY S-

;)

Re: 2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot
 

Ya know, that kind of looks like one of Nikola Tesla's lost inventions with the potential to take over the world. These robots build quite a static charge driving this year, could you make it discharge out of the top? Then you would really be the thunder chickens... that would be awesome.

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That looks like a good robot. Can't wait to see you guys at Midwest this week. Good luck!!!

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I agree and disagree. I disagree mainly because we have a power dumper that is not complex. We use 4 CIM's. 2 for drive train, 1 for pick up and 1 for our shooter. We can deposit our hopper of 15-20 balls in the blink of an eye. It's not complex and only had one problem over our entire regional. That problem was fixed in about 5 minutes or less.
I agree that both can work well if they maximize their stregths and this is not mean dumpers will be less effective. If you maximize the speed of a shooter and the quantity of a dumper you have a great robot.