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Originally Posted by Zippiot
the poll shows that the majority have less than 1 inch of clearance (not majority but .5 to 1 inch got the most votes) but is that high enough to not get stuck under a larger bot, or on top of a tetra/goal? our bot seems like a truck towering over a little japanese car (i dont mean to offend anyone, i drive a mitsubishi). will the bots with .5-1 inch have any potential advantage over my bot with 4 inches?
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There is no inherent advantage in having a very low ground clearance. Much depends on how you distribute the weight. Last year, for example, we had a fairly tippy robot. It wasn't too bad when our lift mechanism was fully retracted, but that 9lb slider motor/gearbox for sliding the bar was a real liability when the lift was extended. At least until we hooked the bar, after that it didn't matter.
The potential problem was that we had a fairly concentrated weight that was pretty high. We got away with it because we were only in that condition for a few seconds.
So a robot with a very low ground clearance that has two chip motors mounted high on the robot to drive their arm, may very well be worse off than a robot with 4" of ground clearance but has all the arm motors mounted low.
Four inches of ground clearance is enough to ensure you won't get trapped in a goal. If you keep everything heavy close to the plane of the wheel axles you should be fine. We have about 2" over most of the frame so that we can climb out of a goal should we wind up in one. We also have areas of low clearance to prevent getting in that position.
Looking at all the robots here on CD I can see why you might be concerned. There does seem to be a great number of low slung robots. But following the herd is not always the best course.