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Re: Passive vs Active Gearing
I'm going to agree with the statement that the tradeoffs in creating an active mechanism does not seem like it will be worth the small amount of time saved except maybe at the extreme high performance level.
The main issue with a passive mechanism that seems to be mentioned is time for the pilot to notice and pull the gear. While this may add an additional half to full second in the time the pilot takes to physically pull up the lift, I think that the expectation that the pilots will be too busy to see or be able to respond to the passive gearing robot is overstated. Pilots will be focused on the match. Pilots will pull up the gears from incoming robots before placing and turning the ones on the ship. And of course pilots can tend to the passive gear bots before pulling up the gears from the active robots. The only situation I can see where a reasonable pilot would not be at the lift the moment the passive gear bot gets there is if three passive gearing robots all get to the airship at the same time.
That being said, I can see an active mechanism having a benefit if it is easier to integrate into the design or more space efficient. Personally I feel that the time to design and the additional point of failure that results from an active mechanism is just not worth the few seconds you will save each match.
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Jonathan Zwiebel
Driver, Project Manager, Programmer [Team 8, Paly Robotics]
2016 Central Valley Regional Finalist and Wildcard, Silicon Valley Regional Quarterfinalist, Curie Division, CalGames Quarterfinalist and Entrepreneurship Award, Capital City Classic Quarterfinalist
2015 Central Valley Regional Entrepreneurship Award, Silicon Valley Regional Entrepreneurship Award, Capital City Classic Semifinalist and Judges' Award
2014 Central Valley Regional, Silicon Valley Regional, Chezy Champs
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