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Unread 11-01-2011, 17:32
Ian Curtis Ian Curtis is offline
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FRC #1778 (Chill Out!)
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Re: Abandoning Floor Loading

Quote:
Originally Posted by IndySam View Post
You run down and pick up a round tube from your loader, you then race back down and have to put it between two other tubes to complete a row and score big points but you miss and drop it. You loose the match and that darn tube is sitting on the floor mocking you.

Will you be able to live with your decision then?
While designing to recover if you make a mistake isn't a bad plan, a better plan is to get the tube on the first time! It will realistically take several seconds at least to recover that tube, especially if it takes a "bad bounce" off of another robot or the other scoring pegs. Even worse, it could knock other tubes off on the way down! And I know banking on alliance partners isn't the best strategy, but chances are you won't be on an alliance with three of the exact same robot.

For those who think chucking tubes is the way to go: watch matches from 2007. The very best throws could barely make it the rack, which was about 20 feet away from the drivers station. It was hard to get the tubes to track straight -- very often they arced over the field because the only way to get distance was to frisbee them. If you're launching them from the HP stations (which I imagine will be the only way, as the scoring pegs keep the middle pretty clear), your human player better be darn sure they don't end up off the field, or much worse, inside your opponent's scoring zone where you can't touch them at all.

-Ian "Still bitter about the misthrown tube that knocked 1276 out of the tournament at BAE in 2007" Curtis

(watch the red alliance start chucking tubes as autonomous ends, that gives you an idea of how easy they are to throw)
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