Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

Breakaway? Soccer robots don't really play hockey.

Lunacy, on the other hand...

I think the best thing for a minibot is something like this last year, except that triggering the tower, instead of scoring points, releases some game object worth bonus points. Each time the minibot hits the target, the object is released.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

I like the releasing game pieces idea, but I think it would be funny to appease the water game crowd and have miniboats that race through a pool or something.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

What about curling? The minibots are the curling iron and at the end of the match, they deploy on the ground or on a special elevated platform and march their way to the target. The teams are given points based upon location of the minibot relative to the target, not a 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4rth system. Only issue might be the judging; it is not as objective as this year's was.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

One thing that I have not heard yet is sumo bots...on a larger scale.
The main bot would deploy its minibot into a ring at the beginning of the match. The minibots would then attempt to push each other out of the ring. Last alliance still in the ring, wins a bonus per minibot still standing (1 out of 3, 2 out of 3, etc).
The real art to this is distinguishing friend from foe. A minibot able to do this would be very valuable.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

While it would be a big pain for FTA's everywhere, teleoperated minibots would be pretty cool.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

I'd rather see minibots controlled by the onboard software of the main bot :eek: (IE autonomous would be in controlling the minibot)

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

That's actually a really interesting idea.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

I think we have the new human player position!

Well I also like the idea of mini-bots dropping bonus game pieces. What would be cool is to have them do some kind of maze and the mini-bot who completes it first gets extra bonus pieces.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

I've been joking to some team members that this year's minibots are going to be deployed onto the other alliance's robots. Once they're on, they climb around and try to pull wires out. Then the alliance stations would have a pit area where a disabled robot can be pushed so human players can try to bring it back to life. My other joke is that the minibots will be mini battle bots that have a miniature no holds barred free for all tournament in a special arena area of the field. I'm sorry, but either of those would be hilarious.

Here's a real idea that is a development on the previously suggested concept of having the minibots go into a place too small for the hostbot to access. If you have a game that doesn't allow extending beyond the frame perimeter, you could basically make the minibot your manipulator that goes in to fetch or score a small game piece.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

Actually, we thought about this before last year's game, in the Rumor Forum. Note that this was before the game was disclosed and before the minibot inclusion was announced. One possibility was that the remote bot could be tethered to the main bot like the early years in FIRST so that there would not be an issue with another controller or additional work for the FTA.

Just a thought. :)

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

What if the minibot had to plug its self into a field piece. It could have a USB flash drive on board that had a file on it with the team's number. It would have to find the USB port on the field piece and plug the USB in. The field piece reads the number and determines points by the time it took and of course who gets the points by the file number. Seems simple but would be real tricky.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

My only problem with mini bots reaching a point first or resembling a "race" is that it would bring back the problems from this year. This being that nearly the entire season was devoted to making the minibot faster and faster.

Maybe a task indicated above like just having the minibot reach the location awards the same bonus game pieces/points. Kind of like the way OCCRA is with the smaller VEX robots assisting the larger robots by moving game pieces to the field or scoring game pieces in smaller vex goals.

Just my two cents :/.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

How about a minibot that had to complete some simple task but with all drive power coming from limited mechanical source such as a spring or per-compressed piston. It might have some limited electrical components and switches, but the electrical portion could not directly drive the bot. You would need to complete some task such as climb, navigate a simple maze, run a short obstacle course including WATER hazards, etc. But all actions would need to be completed on a very limited energy budget.

Re: Future Minibot Functions
 

Here is another idea to perhaps add more visual interest. The minibot gets built like a mars rover, inside a deployment shell. Perhaps the minibot is inside a plastic sphere, or a regular solid, made of two hemispheres held together by a latch that is controlled by the minibot.

The main robot deploys the minibot into a chute, and the minibot rolls down a short course with a few bumps and turns. This portion could be as complex as desired to add interest ala Rube goldberg. But when the minibot reaches the end, it needs to recognize that it has reached the end and releases the latch on the shell. It then must climb free of the shells and navigate some distance away from the shell to demonstrate a successful deployment, perhaps on an irregular surface or from the bottom of an artificial crater.