Quote:
Originally Posted by GeeTwo
Top 24 doesn't meet the MCC description. Top 12 would be closer to the target. There's no way a herding robot can reach this level.
|
Being the "24th best robot" is often a high probability of being one of the best teams watching Saturday afternoon.
My observations are that what I would consider top 24 often contain about 20 or so teams that actually end up playing in playoffs/elims. this could be inaccuracy of scouting or differing objectives or... Most years, top 16 or so are a pretty good lock for playing (this isn't necessarily the top 16 ranked teams). 2012 was a odd year where a lot of really good "long bots" sat out Saturday afternoon due to the high bonus and desire for a short wheelbase 3rd that year.
*****************************
So,my thought would be MCCs for this year. the first was a pretty simple robot that could make stacks of 2 from landfill or HP station (when I assumed the totes would land flat). This bot would start the season making around 3 stacks of 2, and eventually get to maybe as many as 5 or 6 stacks of 2 with some practice. I saw a few of these robots in Michigan this year, and several of them did well at the district level either being a low level captain or late first round/early 2nd round pick.
5517 is a super clean example of this. The robot looks fantastic, but is essentially a 4-bar arm that is powered by pneumatics with a slide through tote loader. They ranked relatively high at both district events, and were low level captains at both events. Pretty good for rookie team.
Why I am a fan of 4-bar arm over Elevators/lifts for MCC: I saw a ton of well intended, but ultimately flawed elevator executions this year. Any sort of sliding mechanical element that has to resist a cantilevered force tends to have racking, friction, or flex issues. The 4-Bar has less trouble and is often easier to manufacture.
There were some really good elevator kits utilized this year, which I personally think falls within the easy to manufacture (purchase orders are pretty easy to make), but to fab an elevator from raw material is a bit tricky.