Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

MOE, Team 365 from 2002 comes to mind when thinking about something like this. Given, back then you could have metal dig into the carpet, but MOE had a system that would expand the entire width of the field more or less and was able to stay in place/move forward much of the time.

A valid concern, but I imagine MANY teams manipulators they are using to pick up tubes will present the same issue.

-Brando

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

Fun times. You'll fit right in. :cool:

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

You're right.

@Original Post
Wheels (a lot of them) on their own should be able to give as much traction as a stomp pad, but the main idea is to get most to all of the weight onto the bumper extensions.

Also, it would be beneficial (if you plan on deploying a minibot, or if you get pushed out of position) to raise the bumper extensions, because the long configuration being won't be very maneuverable when it comes to turning.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

However, if you choose to deploy this between your towers. You will presumably never have to turn again the entire match. Then to deploy the mini-bot you just bump into the tower and go from there.

Also, I would consider creating an auto mode which gets right up to the middle line so you can deploy as soon as possible.

My favovite thing about this stratigy is that not only will you be blocking teams out of their scoring area. You will also be traping teams inside the area. The more I think about it the more I like it. This is definatly the best possible defensive stratigy for the game this year.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

Yup. When we discussed this strategy that was one of it's biggest advantages. Not only did they have to fight their way through you to get to the scoring rack, you better believe they are also going to have to fight you to get out.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

27 X 54 ft field.

27x12= 324in
field lanes= 4ft 4x12= 48
half tower base= 15in
robot length= 82 in

324-48-48-15-15-82= 116 in

116/2= 58 inches on either side of you when in the middle of the field.

58/12= 4.8333 ft

you must be able to travel about 9 fps to be effective with this stratigy.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

Possible countering strategy: one robot stays on the scoring zone-side of the dragonfly, the other two acting as feeder robots, that pass tubes over the dragonfly. This has been talked about a lot anyway, but against the dragonfly seems to be the place where it would be most effective. Makes a good argument for multi-joint arms and/or a small "kicker."

--Ryan

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

Thanks for all of the feedback. The team went through them today and changed a few things in our design. I will get them loaded up here in a few days.

We are going to reduce the size our extension width to eliminate any overhang of the perimeter in our starting configuration
We are going to lower the bumper to start at 1 inch
We are going to move as much weight to the extensions as we can
We are only going to use the four main wheels to drive, once in our defensive area we will move between the two zones to bog entrance and egress from the opposing team scoring zone on the safe side of the caution line.
We are going to create some code to keep the robot on the safe side of the caution line using one of our light sensors
We are going to use steel plates as opposed to sand to ballast our extensions
We are going to use 8 high traction wheels to maximize friction and moment of inertia during defensive game play
We are going to keep our pseudo bumpers the same color as our real bumpers and put the team number on them as well
We are going to make a very structurally sturdy bot to be able to withstand high kinetic energy impacts

Let me know if the students missed any changes.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

One of the kids asked about putting a leaf blower on the top of the robot to work against that. Not sure if that is legal plus it seems like a good bit of work so i told them to keep it in their back pocket if we have time at the end we can work on it.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

hmmm I don't know about a leaf blower, but a gaint net sure would be cool! It could be attached to the "wings" and fling out at the beginning of teleop almost like a colapsible volley ball net :cool: that would make passing or throwing the tubes over you very difficult for your opponents

I love this design! I am so excited that the Rambots are off to such a great start in this season and in FIRST :D

~Hannah

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

The only problem there would be the fact that you cannot have control of more than one game piece at any given time. The net would probably collect multiple game pieces, and it would be pretty hard to release them when they are caught. Nice idea, though!

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

WOAH! I just noticed the team name:D .

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

If only you could have 2 robots with this strategy and one pure scoring bot. You could effectively build a wall without a need to maneuver back and forth. The odds would be against an alliance being able to get both though unless one of them actually got to pick and was ranked first.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

Quite honestly, forcing an alliance to perform this strategy would be an excellent defense! From past games (07 and 08, particularly) 50% of robots spend a large portion of their time acquiring game pieces... if you can force an alliance to have to acquire each game piece twice, you'd be doing a lot! This would be less effective the better your competition is...

The strategy that 3553 is proposing is by no means a game-breaking strategy... it's not like you're putting an infinitely tall stone wall in front of their goals! This is a very strong deterrent that will likely reduce the opponents score more than an average offensive robot would increase your own alliances' score. Simply put, the right robot can play effective - but not bullet-proof - defense with this strategy.

Re: Are extensions with bumpers after the start of the game legal
 

thanks I didn't even think about it like that :o Also after spending more time thinking about the net i realized that a robot with a claw could easily get tangled/ destroy a net... oh well, I still really like the dragonfly design though

~Hannah