Farthest shot made?
 

Does anyone know what the farthest shot ever made in 2009 or 2006 was? I was wondering if any robot had ever been able to shoot across the entire playing field. If so, could you include a video/picture and a team number?

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

There were muzzle-velocity restrictions in the 2006 game so I suspect that limited people trying super long-range shots.

-Mike

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

I don't understand why they limited the muzzle velocity. If the robot is capable of sinking shots across court that should be an advantage. Especially if this year the game pieces are very soft and dont fly far even with high muzzle velocity.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

This year (currently) doesn't have any muzzle restrictions that I am aware of.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

I would imagine that it is just a safety precaution, the energy of a 0.7 lb ball flying nearly level for 54 feet is quite substantial if you're on the receiving end and it could knock over other robots if they're in the way.

Of course there's no restriction on muzzle velocity this year as far as I know.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

There is no rule that states where a shot can be made from. In the animation (yes yes, animation is not official rules) it said "Balls can be shot from anywhere on the field. Going with both that and the fact there is no rule against shooting from as far as possible, it seems to be you can shoot anywhere.

Plus, the Inbounder can make shots too, so 57' is the farthest shot you can make this year.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

In 2006 1511's robot shot full field (actually it was from about midfield into the giant screen that was behind the player station), and got called on it. The robot had software limiting that dialed down the muzzle speed and we had to demonstrate its effectiveness before we were allowed to compete in the next match. If I remember right we had a sensor issue that allowed it to spin up to full speed and really launch the ball.

The configuration we had was 2 of the giant CIM motors (not in the kit anymore) direct driving 2 wheelchair wheels that were spinning on an axle in brass bearings. It was a pretty beastly configuration and fun for demos, but definitely had to be limited for safety on the field.

I know there were several other robots that had pretty long shots, but that was the longest I remembered ever seeing. I think our calculations said we could shoot well over 60'.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

Wow, leave it to Rolling Thunder. How solid was this in terms of accuracy and precision/consistency?

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

1986 had a catapult on their robot in 2009 that they used to shoot empty cells directly from the outpost player station to the human players in the corner. They have some videos posted on here showing them making free throws on a basketball hoop...

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

Seems almost like they knew something....

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

Well one of the difficult things with our robot as you could see was that we aimed using the drivetrain. Once the driveteam got good with it, it was phenomenal. The 6WD (2 traction/4 omni) worked well for aiming that year, though it proved rather difficult for consistent autonomous. For such a large target (2006 goal), it was easy enough to aim manually, and by the second regional nearly every ball shot went in. However, I would guess that Turreted shooters had an easier time aiming more precisely with the exceptions of some of the camera issues (large LED signs in boston, open doorways with bright light, etc). If the camera issues could be overcome, its certainly more precise to aim with a turret.

The other benefit to 1511's 2006 design was the strong drivetrain, although with 4 omnis we were easily "pushed off target", our driver that year was so good that he could spin away from an opponent and re-aim the robot in seconds, ensuring that only a ball might have missed.

If we tried to put the 2006 robot up against this year's goals, I suspect it would be much much harder, as they are smaller targets and the physics of scoring baskets is much more difficult than shooting straight through a giant circle. I doubt you will see very many (if any) successful shots past half court.

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

I put 30' from 4' high and played around until I got 24 mph. I converted this to fps and then calculated the rotational frequency a 6" wheel would need to achieve this speed...

It's 1337 rpm, which while not terribly informative yet because this was a back of the envelope calculation, it's still pretty 1337!

Re: Farthest shot made?
 

The empty cell throws were about 35 ft., but the catapult's range was about 45 ft.