Thread: Build Timeline
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Unread 01-01-2008, 22:54
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Re: Build Timeline

Quote:
Originally Posted by Billfred View Post
While many veteran FIRSTers will argue that mobility should be your first priority, don't let it become your focus to the point that it's Week 5 and you're just now starting to think about manipulators.
I would like to highlight this point. As I watched competitions and walked through the pits, one thing became clear. In most cases tube robots were not lacking because they lacked arm capability, it was because their gripper was not too good. Tubes either fell out, were hard to grasp in the first place, or were hard to align to the goal. (the worst cases being all three) Most of the arms were similar. There were lots of jointed arms and elevators out there, and very few arms were unique (heck, we had a pretty unusual design, but 1251 had essentially the exact same concept just with different proportions, motor selections, and execution). What differentiated the good, the bad, and the average was mostly in the grippers.

I think Billfred is too modest and doesn't present the gripper situation with his own team's bot as drastic enough. Our pit at Palmetto was next to 1618's and so I saw an awful lot of their robot (including the incident that earned it its name). The shoulder was fast, one of the fastest I have ever seen. I was constantly telling my team that 1618 was the dark horse of Palmetto; if they had had a working gripper, I think they would have been a very strong robot (#1 seed material, in fact). The drivetrain was very effective, the shoulder was very fast, but the gripper just didn't work. If I remember their stats from our scouting correctly, 1618 scored one (maybe two) ringers at Palmetto and I feel with a better gripper design that they could have been scoring 4 per match.

In contrast, consider 68, Truck Town Thunder. I never saw their robot in person, but I have seen a number of their matches on video. Their arm was a good deal slower than 1618's, but their gripper was very effective. They were a well above average scoring machine, not only at the Championship, but also at the toughest event of the year, IRI. (of course, their drive system was solid too; nobody pushes Truck Town, nobody (except 177))

The drivetrain determines if you can get to the goal, the arm if you can reach it, but the gripper determines if you can even get the game piece in the first place, much less score it. Don't shortchange the gripper.
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