2009 REAL ThunderChicken Robot

[Paul Copioli]

O.K., Here is the real 2009 ThunderChicken robot: Roxxy.

Turreted shooter with 20 ball capacity. No human load. Empties in anywhere between 3 and 5 seconds depending upon the condition of the balls.

Paul

P.S. - The one pictured before is rookie team 3069's robot.

[Akash Rastogi]

Hehehe, can I have the other one Paul? Pretty pleeeease. Tell 3069 that they made a robot that will put up a strong fight as well (as long as there's ample supply of Magic and Win in their compressed Wintanks)

Roxxy looks like a friggin beast! Awesome job from the folks over on 217. Curious as to why human load was written off from the robot. What was the design process that went into this. Any design process info would be great please.

[Pjohn1959]

Yes, much more of what we expected. That's one sic looking machine.

[Alex Cormier]

Haha, great job and one purrty robot.

[joshsmithers]

So i wore my thunder chickens shirt today, wondering when the real robot would appear.

That is so more like it. 217, you nearly let me down. So what's with the color scheme? I miss the green... And would it be too much to ask for a video?

[smurfgirl]

Originally Posted by joshsmithers

That is so more like it. 217, you nearly let me down. So what's with the color scheme? I miss the green... And would it be too much to ask for a video?

So I kept staring at this photo, because something looked off to me, and I couldn't figure out what. I mean, it looks like one heck of a robot, but for some reason it still wasn't screaming "ThunderChickens!" to me when I looked at it... and I just finally realized, it's not ThunderChicken green. (Yes, ThunderChicken is the name of a shade of green. Ask Crayola about it.) It was the color scheme that threw me off. But yeah... I'm excited to see that robot on the field!

[Mike Copioli]

Originally Posted by smurfgirl

So I kept staring at this photo, because something looked off to me, and I couldn't figure out what. I mean, it looks like one heck of a robot, but for some reason it still wasn't screaming "ThunderChickens!" to me when I looked at it... and I just finally realized, it's not ThunderChicken green. (Yes, ThunderChicken is the name of a shade of green. Ask Crayola about it.) It was the color scheme that threw me off. But yeah... I'm excited to see that robot on the field!

There seems to be a great deal of speculation about whether or not this bot is our actual bot. Yes I know it is missing our trademark Thunder Chicken green. I should tell you that the bumpers are in fact the standard, retina scorching, Thunder Chicken green. There is a reason we decided to avoid green elsewhere. We wanted to assure that our color scheme would not interfere in any way with the cameras of other bots, speculative or otherwise. This is why the flex loom leading to the turret is black.

[Doug Leppard]

Once again you guys did great.

when your fake bot pic came out we discussed that it couldn't be your bot.

[MrForbes]

We didn't even discuss it, we just laughed

[Paul Copioli]

Originally Posted by squirrel

We didn't even discuss it, we just laughed

That was the whole point of our first thread. Anyone who actually thought that robot was ours, just doesn't know us at all.

Keeping on track ... Mike beat me to the punch. We are very concerned that our green will be perceived to interfere with the camera. As such, we have limited our TC green to only the bumpers (believe me, it is enough) and behind the numbers that are cut into the drive base.



We also have very cool flex loom (that Mike referred to) in TC green, but decided to leave it off since it is right at the height of the camera.

Moving on ... Jason pointed out our theory on human loading. We chose human over picking up in 2006. We chose floor over human this year. We have limit ourselves from doing everything since 2005 (for reasons why, look at our 2004 robot) and doing both was discussed, but ultimately cut out. We think that a sitting chicken has no place in this game. 254, 111, and 148 have all reinfoced this thinking. Week 1 should prove us right or wrong either way.

I also think the variance between traditionally powerful teams in basic robot construction type is a sign that there may be a larger range of successful strategy variances this year. We are very excited to be at Midwest next week and can hardly wait.

[Madison]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

I also think the variance between traditionally powerful teams in basic robot construction type is a sign that there may be a larger range of successful strategy variances this year. We are very excited to be at Midwest next week and can hardly wait.

I think this has been the most interesting part of seeing all of the highly anticipated robots this season. There is tremendous variety in design when, initially, it seemed as if people thought there'd be none at all. It goes to show that what may be an obvious solution to one is not an obvious solution to all.

[TheOtherGuy]

*sniff* it's beautiful

[Meredith Novak]

Very beautiful, but I am partial to blue

Looks like the "shooter/ dumper" contest is significantly ratcheted up...

[JasonV]

Human loading was written off for two reasons, #1 we didnt feel it was the best option because of the limited number of balls, with ground load we can use more than our 20 balls and can pick up any misses, #2 when you are human loading you are a sitting target and we have all seen what some of these power dumpers can do to a sitting chicken.

[MrForbes]

That's a beautiful robot! and it looks strikingly similar to another one I've seen somewhere.....