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Re: Ramp bot vs. Arm bot
Strategy will definitely be important to the game. It will be the most important thing about this game because of the myriad of ways to score. Every year strategy is important but this year strategy will play a much bigger role. If your alliance doesn’t have a set strategy then they will probably not succeed. They also need to have a few back-up strategies in case something changes or goes wrong. If a robot is key to your plan and they fall over, then you better have a back up plan. Also it will be essential for each team, not just each alliance, to have several strategies of their own. Ultimately this year’s game will be won by the team that knows the game the best and has the best strategy.
Just a correction that I have seen repeated many times. Having a ramp bot does not guarantee 60 points. That was a typo in my original post. Sorry. However I think that getting up on a ramp will be needed to win matches. Someone above me posted that last year many teams couldn’t get up the ramp in time. We traveled to Rochester and Philadelphia last year and found that many teams (including team 250 and 229) had very few problems in climbing the ramp. If they can get up a 30 degree ramp, in 10 seconds, then couldn’t they drive up onto a ramp that is say 10 or 15 degrees? I am not denying this year it will be hard to elevate 2 robots. But I believe that it will be even harder to score on the spider rack in long rows. This is due to the fact that the spider rack will move at the slightest touch making it increasingly harder to place the tubes onto the rack. That’s not even including the opposing alliance spoiling the row!
Our team had mockups during the first week after kickoff. We had a variety of robots (my group’s was going to attempt to use an arm and a ramp) and planned on using attributes from each design to make our robot. Most of the mockups were similar but one stood out. It had a “forklift” on either side of the robot that used a pneumatic system to raise the robots above the field. This could also be used to “flip” a fallen robot back up so they can continue playing in the game.
Just my opinion. This will be an interesting season!
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