Thread: Wedge bot DQ
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Unread 25-03-2003, 23:21
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Solace Solace is offline
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AKA: Jake
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I don not believe that you need to remove the wedge in order to comply with the judges' ruling. all it needs is a little redesigning

You will get DQ'd if you use it to flip someone. However, it was obvious that (from watching the SBPLI regional) that your wedge works primarily to lift an opponent up so that they are easier to move. All you have to do is make sure that the opponent doesn't flip over when you push them. Its not the design or its intention (easily shoving other robots) that is illegal, its the fact that they flip over.

Time for some wild speculation on my part.

Robots will flip over not only because of the wedge, but because they will ride complete up and over another bot. All you would need to do is put a stop of some kind ensuring that an opponent rides up the ramp portion of your robot and then stops.

Consider this - take a couple pieces of square aluminum and attach them to the top of the robot. You would probably want to position them at such an angle so that they are perpendicular to the wedge, but are far enough beyond the top of the wedge that they do not interfere with the flip-up acrtion of the wedge
With this, you could still pick an opponent's front wheels off of the ground, but they would hit and snag on the stop before actually flipping over.

Sorry if I'm blabbing incoherently, but having seen your robot in action (and I must agree that it flips over opponents a little to much) I think its a simple but ingenious design and I wouldn't want you to have to scrap it.
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Jake
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