Posted by colleen - T190 at 03/19/2001 6:40 PM EST
Engineer on team #190, Gompei, from Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science and WPI.
In Reply to: different type of balancing, which one do you like better?
Posted by Ken Leung on 03/19/2001 5:46 AM EST:
There is no reason.. 'cept for lack of a robot that can do it.. that ANY team, no matter how good, should really try balancing two goals without a wedge (not speaking for those who balance two w/o being on cause i haven't seen exactly how they do it..)..
It is easy.. fast.. and efficient.. you can drive up full speed (many teams have a problem getting up if they have to slow down to make sure the ramp doesn't toggle erradically).. slam down on another bot and then make the MINOR adjustment to balance.. there are many times that all the ramp needs is that stop of momentum by the wedge bot and it will be balanced..
Wedges also allow the big balls to be loaded before hand and then balancing to occur w/o them falling off.. the balls usually stay in the 12in drop from tilted to flat.. but they fall out when the ramp goes from one extreme to the other.. (and the more small balls you want in those goals, the more critical this is)..
Wedges all the way.. use 'em!! don't be stubborn!! no matter HOW GOOD you think your drivers are.. it is really only to your benefit!
even better are wedgebots that can load the big ball while wedging adn you're balancing (just to ensure no loss.. cause that's also dependent on how inflated or not those bigballs are)... it was what we did all during the finals in LI..
.. it helps when you have someone come grab the far goal while the other is being loaded (saw 126 do it in their UTC win.. our alliance did it to win long island too) and then you can still get the big ball on with no risk of unbalancing..