[BrendanB]

On day one our team did a little simulation of the game and from that we found that most of the moves our team members made were going across the field to get a ball from the human player in a competitive match (several scores from each alliance). With that being said we played around with whether or not going over the bump was necessary. We thought through it some more and came up with that if we just went over the bridge it would take a few seconds longer to cross but we are limited to 2 bridges: one of which is our own alliance's shared with 2 robots and a common bridge which is shared with 5 other robots 3 of which would want to stop us. Additionally, what if one of our robots got stuck on either bridge or takes much longer than us to cross then we are now stuck in rush hour traffic at the tolls, and in a game with so few balls what if for some reason we there are several ball in our opponents zone constantly?

Conclusion, crossing the bump while another design challenge will pay off in the long run in that we can move across the field over multiple access points to maximize our ability to play the game. To accomplish this we have angles on the front of our frame that allow us to glide over the bump with a 6wd.

We were also torn between a long and wide drivebase. A wide robot would give us a large gap for pickup and have an easier time fitting on the bridge but comes a the cost of having a high chance of tipping if not designed properly due to the shorter wheel base. A long robot takes away our ability for a large pickup but is safer at going over the bump and fitting in our ball pickup and shooter.

Conclusion, make a long robot with a drop down harvester at full width and is heavily weighted towards one side to fit on the bridge for a triple balance.

Pretty lengthy but this is what our team came up with in the end. The biggest thing is making sure your team can accomplish what you intend to build.

Good luck!