Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

In my mind, the game lends itself to wide drives.
Wide-
Wider entrance for balls into frame
Ease of use for pickup because of this^
Ease of use of bridge and fitting robots on it

Narrow-
Possibility to be more stable when crossing bump and/or bridge
"Traditional"

If you can make a bot that is "stable enough" in a wide configuration, then I think it is the best option.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

We're building both wide, narrow, and a third and we'll decide in week 4 which to advance from prototype to the final design. With 70+ students and 15+ mentors, we have the advantage of three full build teams.

Myself, I'm voting for wide. I think going over the bump is overrated in importance, while fitting on the bridge is underrated by most. A wide bot might also be better suited to two shooters, one for scoring and one for inbounding.

With three build teams working, and a ton of great ideas from CD, I'm hoping for a lot of good options down the road. At the worst, it gives us a lot of opportunity to fail faster which is something we've never mastered.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Both. But at the moment i'm not totally sure what the mech guys are doing. All I know is that I'm tryng to prevent them from bashing up the encoders on last years bot as we dismantle it.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Looking at the earlier calculations on whether three long robots could actually fit on the bridge, one little fact was overlooked. Three 38 inch long robots can fit on the ramp, indeed. But a robot built to its maximum dimensions will not be 38 inches, but rather more like 44 inches. Why? The bumpers are not included in the 38 inch measurement, so when you take into account the extra bumper space, you're going to have a little bit more robot hanging over the edge than you think.

The balance issue with a tall robot can be easily overcome. The simplest solution is to put the center of balance towards the bottom of the robot. With that, it will be much easier to avoid tipping. And a sideways robot can allow all three robots, even if the other two are long ways, to fit comfortably.

With that, long ways will be the best way in my opinion, because as we all know, every little second counts, and that second saved collecting that extra ball can give you those few extra points that you need to win nationals. :D

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Actually, it looks like basically everyone's calculations (here and elsewhere) do include bumpers, or have been corrected to do so. Here, Don's nailed the 44" from the beginning:
That said, 3 long bots definitely does create a very precarious situation! It's certainly something to think about, though I think you'll find that virtually all teams otherwise likely to be strong elimination contenders will have realized this (and likely the benefit to collecting width-wise) and found a way to compensate. I won't claim this necessarily means driving wide.

Low CG is definitely always something for which to aim. (Unless the GDC ever forgets to specify the height dimension as being perpendicular to the floor.;)) However, I can't claim it's necessarily easy to achieve. It definitely can be if you have a non-existent scoring mechanism, an exceedingly light/low shooter, or Andy Baker. Us tall shooters will being paying very, very close attention to it.

Welcome to ChiefDelphi!

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Ah, I hadn't read past the first page. But thank you, I've used this site now for a long time, but just now signed up.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Well, it has happened: The wide chassis count has surpassed the narrow chassis one. ::rtm::

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

We, the long chassis voters, are now the minority that can, in the end, tell the majority "I told you so". (At least, I hope so. :ahh:)

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Actually, DonRotolo included this number in his calculations. This does bring up another consideration into the equation though. I believe he had 21.5" of each robot on the bridge. Now, should the wheel on each 6 wheel drive robot be spaced evenly, that would put Bots 1 and 3 leaning on the inside of their center wheel pair. If I am not mistaken, that would make them likely to fall until their is only 20" over the actual bridge. I could be alone in this, but having 24" of my 44" robot and 4 of my 6 wheels hanging over a foot of thin air makes me awful nervous. On top of this, getting both bots 1 and 3 on the bridge without placing them there with a blimp bot (an idea tossed around in our team for a short while:p ) seems to me to be an extremely difficult, if not impossible. I hate to be close-minded, but I tend to side with soxfan269. If we see three long robots on a ramp, it will most likely be a monumentous, if not one-of-a-kind, event.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

A wide robot on the bridge only partway would likely be a 4 wheel robot, with one pair of wheels hanging off the edge and the frame (or chains?) resting on the edge of the bridge deck, which is a relatively stable configuration

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

Assuming one of them doesn't fold up into a multidimensional space-time warp... (in FRC, you never know):rolleyes:

I didn't say it was likely, just not impossible.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

We have decided to go with narrow body. We, as a team have decided that is very important to go over the barrier. A wider robot has a higher center of gravity, as compared to a narrow one.

The main point is a wider base means a likely chance of your robot taking a dive.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

interesting...we decided it's more important to be able to collect and score balls on our side of the field, than to go over to the other side...unless all the balls are gone on our side. And then we'll use one of the two bridges available to us, or carefully cross the barrier if needed.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

A wide oriented robot does not necessarily have a higher center of gravity than a narrow one, the difference is in the length of the wheel base. As long as you design with an appropriately low CG both should be fine.

Re: Poll: Wide or Narrow Chassis?
 

We understand that, It is just with our current wheel base, a 6 wheel drive, we would have a better wheel base with a narrow chassi, and more likely to go over the barrier without tipping.