[DougHogg]

Team 980, The ThunderBots

Robot name: Yoda

Pros:
Our long telescoping arm hits the stack in 1.5 seconds (a little longer when the motor is reversing) and knocks over 5 to 6 columns of bins. The bins will be hit the ramp in 3 seconds (a little longer in reverse) with half or more making it to the carpet.

We also have grabber arms that can rotate out 5 stacks wide for plowing the bins into our zone.

We shift gears on the fly by rotating 2 sets of wheels up and down. They are all spinning constantly so we don't have to worry about grinding our gears when we shift.

We have good pushing power in low gear (conveyor tread) and medium speed in high gear.

We can also stack if the opportunity arises.

Cons:
We have chains running to each of the 8 wheels and we lost some in S. Calif., so we are stiffening our drive train.

Our robot can't go under the bar, and it isn't as fast as some robots.

Our center of gravity is higher than under-the-bar robots. (We didn't tip in Arizona but tipped once in S. Calif. Thanks a lot for ruining our record 696! [Just joking. They got us fair and square.])