[EricH]

Originally Posted by Scott Kozutsky

That's fair but similarily these things evolved away from that for a reason. I've been told that casters were once very popular but I haven't seen one compete at all.

Sorry about rewording my comment. I just figured i could get my point across better with different wording and examples but that was after I already pressed submit.

No problems there. I think I can counter your examples though. It might help your case to use teams from 2012 and prior; 2013 and 2014 were Frame Perimeter sizing rules rather than Fit in the Box sizing rules, which former tended to result in square-ish robots instead of longer rectangles like happened before the Frame Perimeter came to be used.

You see, there's a big difference between a 28" long robot that's 38" wide and a 28" square or some such similar size robot, something about a longer lever arm to turn the robot. I know I saw one really tippy one, back when the 28" by 38" box was first used in 2005, but I can't recall the drivetrain. (I do know they had wheely bars--saved them more than once! If anybody can recall, it was 393 competing at Sacramento, I think. No, they aren't on TBA--but I distinctly remember that regional having a bunch of non-West Coast teams.)

I have actually seen a few caster-bots competing, and I've actually seen one on Einstein, one of the last competitive ones. Folks have figured out that these things called omni wheels are better than casters, and if you don't have omnis, you really want a peg of HDPE or something like that before you reach for the casters. The HDPE peg might get snagged, but it won't try to control your robot for you!