Quote:
Originally Posted by rnewendyke
254's 2014 bot was pretty good at avoiding t-bones like that as well as t-bones in general. They used an alternative bumper material (I believe it is sail cloth, but I'm not certain) and is at least 20 pounds under the 120 pound limit. In most t-bone situations it either bounces off of the other robot, slips off of the other robot, or does a combination of the two. It's not quite as un-t-boneabe as a 33 or other butterfly/butterfly-esk drive trains out there, but it does appear to have an advantage over other traction setups I have seen.
|
IIRC it was sail cloth. They switched after SVR (as well as I believe strengthening the bumpers to better stand up to Arial Assault), and from watching their videos, I agree they did see performance increases.
One dirty little secret about bumpers is that the best teams in the world have been using "alternative" bumper fabrics for years. Just take a look at some 67 or 2056 bumpers from the last few years, they clearly aren't the recommended fabric (Cordura?). It just seems like 971 and to a lesser degree 33 have precipitated a conversation about pinning this year, and suddenly these innovations have come into the light.