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Re: Pool Noodles -- How Important?
I think most people think the pool noodles are harder to throw than they really are. Me and another teammate did an unscientific test throwing noodles down a hallway (~8-10 feet wide, so more difficult conditions than the field) during the first week of the build season. What we found is that with minimal practice (under 30 minutes), we were able to throw the pool noodle far enough to score the +4 points ~30-50% of the time. A majority of our "failures" came from the noodle curving and hitting the wall on either side, so I would image that you percentage on the field may be higher than that by a small margin. We also ensured that it simulated throwing the noodles over the wall by throwing them overhand, since such a motion releases the noodle at higher than six feet for both of us.
Just remember that the noodle only has to be partially partially past the opposing alliance's landfill to score points. It scores points for your alliance if it is not entirely contained within their landfill, so you can have 3/4 of the pool noodle still in their landfill and it will still count as unprocessed litter. This shortens the required throw distance by ~4 feet. It might also give the litter a higher chance to actually score points for you if it's not entirely out of their landfill zone, since the opposing alliance may think that it has already been pushed into the landfill zone when it really is still unprocessed litter.
During elimination matches I could see pool noodles potentially making it more difficult to pick up totes from the landfill (depending on the robot) if the noodles were lying on top of the totes. It appears as though the lifter designs which stack their current stack on top of another tote before lifting the new bottom of the stack (see the Ri3D designs, such as Betelgeuse, for an example) would need to "sweep" off the noodle before they could make a taller stack. It could slow down the opposing alliance's stacks. If you were the only team that threw extra pool noodles, and the other teams kept them strictly for their containers, your average match score could be slightly higher by comparison since their stacks took longer to accumulate (and you might have scored points with the noodles as well).
Each alliance, especially in elimination rounds, will have to carefully weigh the possible outcomes and take into account their robots' capabilities when deciding what to do with their pool noodles. You will always have at least three "discretionary" pool noodles to use (for throwing, scoring in the landfill, or ignoring completely) even if you are able to score a noodle in every bin available to you during a match.
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