[czeke]

Ben, our team worked, on the design, of last season's robot, as a group. We chose to go over the bumps, instead of going thru the tunnels. Our decision was based on the observation that the tunnels could be blocked, and/or we could get stuck in them. So we avoided the tunnels. We kicked around several drivetrain ideas, for going over the bumps, and, as a group, decided that we'd ( for the first time ever ) use tank threads. As it turned out, we used snowmobile track. We zoned out our robot, for the tank treads, for the kicking device, and for the electrical system. We chose NOT to hang from the tower. We felt that there was too much risk, for too little reward, in hanging. We felt that 5 things could happen, 2 were good, 1 was bad, and 2 were disaterous, so we avoided it. As it turned out, our robot went over the bumps TOO fast, and had to be geared down. By doing this, we lost speed, which was OK, and gained torque. Nobody pushed us around. We did the pushing. At the Wisconsin regional, in qualifying, we won 7 matches, lost 1, and tied 2. We ended up 10th out of 50 teams, in coopertition points. We moved up to the 8th position, as elimination alliances were chosen. We have NEVER been in the position, to do the picking, and we were totally unprepared to do so. The alliance partners we chose, were based on non-objective data, and we ended up losing our 2 elimination matches.