pic: Effective Aperture of Low Bar Defense

[Madison]

loading photo ...

[AustinH]

Nice catch! This will undoubtedly come up during strategy discussions today...

[MrForbes]

You can get a tad more room than this, assuming the effective wheelbase of your robot is longer than the ramp. But it's an excellent point, I'm glad you posted this! I bet there are teams that didn't catch this.

[Nathan Streeter]

Glad someone highlighted this! On 1519 we just realized this last night... I hadn't tried to quantify the minimum (14.15"), but we did notice that a robot 15.9" on the leading edge won't fit. It needs to be shorter at the front, and as Mr Forbes noted, the longer your wheelbase the taller you can be (but still probably only around 15" or so at the leading edge).

[Madison]

I should add a disclaimer that I made this sketch pretty quickly based on the dimensions provided in the game manual. It may be that the actual construction of the field elements results in slightly different geometry.

Don't build a robot that's 14.14" tall because of my picture.

[MrForbes]

And for those teams that are kind of new at this....beware that the fields don't always measure exactly what the drawings say they should. It's a good idea to add some extra clearance for something like this. Maybe the 14" number is what you should be shooting for, even if you have a rather long robot. Think about what happens when you go down the other side, too.

[nuclearnerd]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

You can get a tad more room than this, assuming the effective wheelbase of your robot is longer than the ramp. But it's an excellent point, I'm glad you posted this! I bet there are teams that didn't catch this.

You also only have to be ~14" tall until the CG of your robot passes over the end of the ramp (if you drive slow), then you could be 16" tall for the length of the horizontal portion of the platform. That might be splitting hairs though - easier to design to the 14" limit.

[Lil' Lavery]

It's in the picture, but it's worth highlighting that the bar is not centered on the ramp. As a result, the maximum height will vary depending on which side you're approaching it from.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

It's in the picture, but it's worth highlighting that the bar is not centered on the ramp. As a result, the maximum height will vary depending on which side you're approaching it from.

...and also that the neutral zone would be on its left side in this picture.

[bEdhEd]

Glad this was brought up and shared with a picture. This was a factor we were considering with our short bot idea yesterday.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

It's in the picture, but it's worth highlighting that the bar is not centered on the ramp. As a result, the maximum height will vary depending on which side you're approaching it from.

That's fun. You'll need to have a CG that's something like 14" from one end of your robot to make it backwards through the low bar, in that case....

[MrForbes]

Or keep the ends of the robot a little bit shorter than the middle.

[Nebster]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

Or keep the ends of the robot a little bit shorter than the middle.

I was thinking about this too. Something where the front end of the robot is less than the ~14" limit for when the robot is on the ramp, but the rest of the robot can go up to 15.9" or so and be fine.

Warning- MS Paint incoming:

[wilsonmw04]

Originally Posted by Nebster

I was thinking about this too. Something where the front end of the robot is less than the ~14" limit for when the robot is on the ramp, but the rest of the robot can go up to 15.9" or so and be fine.

Warning- MS Paint incoming:

something like this would tackle the low goal well, but it would have significant issues with the overhang of the frame. The approach and departure angles make some defenses impassible.

[Nebster]

Originally Posted by wilsonmw04

something like this would tackle the low goal well, but it would have significant issues with the overhang of the frame. The approach and departure angles make some defenses impassible.

True. My wheel placements weren't accurate to a real robot, i just kind of drew them on in 10 seconds to show that this was a robot. The wheels would definitely be closer to the outside edge of the frame.