Chief Delphi's robot

[18voltMilwauke]

does anyone know what chief delphis robot was at the begining and what was there goal and why did they change it.

[Jeff Waegelin]

Well, I'm sure one of their team members can explain better, but I know it stayed pretty much as-is, at least in the major systems. I think it was initially a stacker, but the bin grabbers were modified to make it a better pusher in Auto mode. This was changed when everyone realized how futile stacking was the first week.

[Jack Jones]

CD8 finished the season in almost the exact mechanical configuration as it began. The only change was the addition of two Fisher-Price drive motors (in series with the drill motors). The pads and frames at the ends of the arms were removed in order to make weight. They were expendable since, as Jeff noted, stacking was futile – especially with a backhoe-like machine – best four-stack time in practice was 1:10

The main reason CD8 didn’t change much was that it was designed to stack, throw, limbo, climb, and push to begin with. It was a Jack-of-all-trades but master of none until the extra power was added. The arms were not a total waste, they were useful in reaching over a defender to knock down their stack; extending them in the stack attack auto saved maybe a full second; they could upright the machine (sometimes); and, a very good operator could use them to control the CG.

So the goal was to do-it-all and they changed because neither time nor the opposition would allow it.