Beatty's 2004 Robot

[mzitz2k]

Every year a team from Hammond, Indiana finds a way to build a BEAST of a robot (pun intended). We have all seen three weeks of competition, yet no sign of Team 71. So, I thought it would be fun to guess as to what robot they will be building this year.

Here are my thoughts-

First possibility:
They build a machine that does the usual - everything! They will have a funnel on a arm, much like TechnoKats' (Team 45's) design. They will be able to feed their human player quickly, then grab a big ball and cap the nearly full stationary goal. After they cap, they will be able to uncap their opponent's stationary goal because it will only take them about 15-20 seconds to hang. This small amount of time to hang is fair because they will be able to grab the bar and hang from the carpet. Bottom line: Lots of small balls will be scored and doubled, they will have some defense, and an extremely smart and fast hanging device.

Second possbility:
They will build a machine that is similar to Team 190. I think they will have a five arm system - yes five, independent arms! One arm will grab the bar in autonomous, the second and the third arms will defend the rest of the bar, the fourth arm will be able to cap and uncap their stationary goal, and the fifth arm will be able to cap and uncap the opponents stationary goal. Bottom line: They will get on the bar very fast, hang, defend, uncap, and cap the respective goals.

Whatever 71 does, plan on the machine being very consistent and having anti-tipping mechanisms due to last year's robot's tipping problems.

Well, this is just what has been bumbling in my head for the past three weeks, what about yours?

[Jeff Waegelin]

I'm going to go out on a limb, and guess that they'll do something that I just thought of today. It seems like a Beatty-esque idea. The basic concept is, the robot has a big basket of some sort, one strong arm, and one really long thin arm. The robot drives under the ball chute in autonomous, opens up the basket, and then swings out a reall long arm to hit the nearest ball tee and release and catch all 18 balls in autonomous mode. The strong arm is a possible addition to this design, and will grab the doubler and hang. One possible variation: the ball tee whacking arm has a hook on the end for hanging on the bar, in lieu of a separate bar-grabbing arm. Anyways, I don't know how likely this idea is, but 71 has used a big swinging arm before, and Mr. Noble told me at Great Lakes that they were doing "something that hasn't been seen before" and, well, this hasn't been seen before. So, it's my best guess.

[Arefin Bari]

why do i have a feeling that team 71 will play really defensive this year just by having a strong arm for hanging and to control the 2x....?

[Crop-Circles]

Hmm, maybe they've finally made a robot that can fly!

Actually, I origanally expected them to do the same thing 1241 does, but the "something that hasn't been seen before" hint makes me wonder. They usaully find some way to control the entire match, but this years game seems very difficult to control. Whatever they do, I'm sure we'll all be kicking ourselves for not thinking the same thing or for having the same idea and dismissing it.

Haven't you people learned yet? You won't get anything out of them until their first regional. Guess all you want, but it looks like nobody outside of their team will know anything for sure until this Thursday at the Midwest Regional...

[Tyler Olds]

i believe that it will be a hanger from the ground with a telescoping turret arm (since they used one last year). With a 2x ball manupulator.

[tkwetzel]

I believe that they will have a basket with a long arm to knock the 10 point ball off the tee in autonomous, they feed those 18 balls to their human player...go get their opponents 18 balls as they fall (if not triggered during autonomous mode) and bring a mobile goal back on their way back with the other 18 balls...they take the 2x ball off the mobile goal while feeding the next 18 balls to the human player...by then, the stationary goal will be close to full...they will cap the stationary goal and then be able to hang quickly. It is very easy to do this all if you have a reliable robot (with all the above mentioned capabilities) and good drivers.

[RogerR]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

Mr. Noble told me at Great Lakes that they were doing "something that hasn't been seen before"

based on this qoute, i believe that they are going to control the multiplier balls. all three of them. this is the only strategy that i could think of that i haven't seen yet, but then again, i've only seen 4 regionals, and i'm not very creative when it comes to strat.

[Kevin Kolodziej]

Thats what we were going to try and do (note that I am mentoring 1064 now and no longer am a part of 71)...we had a pretty decent design for it. But alas, time got the best of us, and with a lack of manpower and resources, the 2004 WildBeast has no doubler ball control anymore (but it will still be a force to contend with though, we hope!)

I hope someone out there can pull off this task...I know there are some that can control 2 of the balls, but all 3 is a sight to behold.

Kev

[JVN]

(190)^3 + 93 = ?

[mzitz2k]

Originally Posted by JVN

(190)^3 + 93 = ?

John,

I'm going to MIT next year, so I love numbers, but you have me completely stumped as to what this means! What in the world does this have to do with 71's bot?

[TD78]

Take what team 190's robot can do and triple that ability (hanging with some big ball capability) and then add in a little bit of team 93 (catching the small balls off the dump).....that combination would be awesome .

[mzitz2k]

Originally Posted by RollinTDollin

Take what team 190's robot can do and triple that ability (hanging with some big ball capability) and then add in a little bit of team 93 (catching the small balls off the dump).....that combination would be awesome .

Good call! Right after I posted, I realized that maybe he was talking about 190's bot, but I am not recalling 93's. Good catch.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by JVN

(190)^3 + 93 = ?

6859093 ?

It seems like there'd be very little point in being able to do that, in my mind.

[Karthik]

Originally Posted by JVN

(190)^3 + 93 = ?

I think what John is saying (and I hesitate to ever try and interpret what he's saying) is that Beatty will be able to hold three big balls and control the bar and the goals the way team 190 can, plus they'll be able to catch the balls from the BDS much like team 93.

If Beatty pulls this off it may be more impressive than their awesome feats of 2001 and 2002. Although it may end up being overkill. Either way it will be interesting to see.

Bring on the photos. I'm willing to add another 6 pack of Dew to John's offer for the first detailed pics of Beatty's robot.