Strategies for Rebound Rumble

What are your team strategies, ideas, or robot designs that you think will/won't work for 2012? How do you think matches will play out? How many offense? How many defense? What will YOU do?!

[akoscielski3]

I was thinking on the way home about 1 robot delivers balls to your side, 1 shoots the balls into the goals and the other plays defense.

Robot design, i have a shooter, a picking up (conveyor type) mechanism, and maybe a thing that would catch rebounds or balls from in the air like a basket or something. Definitely dont like that we can only have 3 balls in our possession. -.-

[Silver218]

For any defensive bots, what would be your teams strategy? We have talked about a defensive bot to possibly block shots from opposing teams

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Silver218

For any defensive bots, what would be your teams strategy? We have talked about a defensive bot to possibly block shots from opposing teams

If we were to play defense (not sure yet), I'd defend the bump in the middle and keep my opponents from reloading, which will force their inbounders to put the balls into play on our side of the field without a robot there to pick them up.

[magi65]

Originally Posted by Daniel_LaFleur

I'd defend the bump in the middle and keep my opponents from reloading, which will force their inbounders to put the balls into play on our side of the field without a robot there to pick them up.

According to [G23] Robots on the same Alliance may not work together to blockade the Court in an attempt to stop the flow of the Match.

[swwrobotics]

Our team was thinking of just waiting underneath the hoops on the opposing alliance's side. This way, for all the balls that are missed, they could fall into a funnel on our robot that would focus them into a launching device and shoot them back onto our side.

So based on this idea, is our robot allowed to remain in front of the hoops for the whole match as long as it is under five feet?

[om23]

Originally Posted by swwrobotics

So based on this idea, is our robot allowed to remain in front of the hoops for the whole match as long as it is under five feet?

Yeah, you're allowed to do this. But make sure you have a way of stopping the balls from entering the funnel. Once you get more than 3 balls its a foul. And the other alliance gains points.

For EVERYONE- not matter defense or offense- make sure you have a way of picking the ball off the ground. Even the most perfect robots will miss the shots from different angles- its a great chance to get rebounds and get some easy points!

[SniperJoe101]

I love the idea of coopertition but honestly I believe the best way to score points is 3 robots on the alliance bridge. Obviously during qualifying it would be very hard to do but once in elimination you have an established alliance. You can then focus on finding the correct way to balance all 3 bots and score 40 points. That could easily turn the tides of any match. Especially when this year's game is so reliant on an accurate shooter for high scoring matches. One thing that Im going to bring up with team 1678 is to make a computer program which you just input the weight and some other values into it and it outputs a configuration for all 3 bots.

Another strategy I have thought of is to have a bot sit right at the inbound station and pretty much have the inbounder hand load the bot which then fires the balls across the court and to the other alliance members. This would help keep from ball starvation and allow the inbounder to be more effective.

[MikeReilly]

For Rookie Teams: consider making a very small bot that can easily squeeze onto a bridge as the 3rd, and can herd balls to your alliance, or maybe flip them over the barrier. This will make you a very desirable 3rd pick for Eliminations.

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by swwrobotics

Our team was thinking of just waiting underneath the hoops on the opposing alliance's side. This way, for all the balls that are missed, they could fall into a funnel on our robot that would focus them into a launching device and shoot them back onto our side.

So based on this idea, is our robot allowed to remain in front of the hoops for the whole match as long as it is under five feet?

Also think about the three offensive robots, each up to 84" tall, right next to each other in the key shooting at baskets: Will you be able to shoot past or over them to get balls back onto your side?

[Mr. Pockets]

Originally Posted by SniperJoe101

I love the idea of coopertition but honestly I believe the best way to score points is 3 robots on the alliance bridge. Obviously during qualifying it would be very hard to do but once in elimination you have an established alliance. You can then focus on finding the correct way to balance all 3 bots and score 40 points. That could easily turn the tides of any match. .

A few things:
1.) Qetting the coopertition bonus is the equivalent of winning the match even if you lost it. Think of it this way: Going through extra trouble to add more robots might win you the match, and you'll get the 2 qualification points. Or you can go and put one bot on the coopertition bridge...and get 2 qualification points whether you win or lose. No matter how you pick it, your action will only get you two qualification points.
2.) There aren't additional points for balancing three robots in the qualification rounds so there's no reason to really try, except for practice.
3.) In the elimination round there is nothing gained from using the coopertition bridge, so the choice is once again a moot one.

Edit: ninja'd

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Also think about the three offensive robots, each up to 84" tall, right next to each other in the key shooting at baskets: Will you be able to shoot past or over them to get balls back onto your side?

Strictly speaking, I doubt most bots are going to be even close to that tall, but in that case I would really recommend high mobility, maybe mechanum or swerve drive, to zip around them to shoot the balls quickly.

As an aside, three offensive bots seems like a risky trick considering the long time needed to get new balls after you score/get your rebounds yanked.

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by SniperJoe101

I love the idea of coopertition but honestly I believe the best way to score points is 3 robots on the alliance bridge. Obviously during qualifying it would be very hard to do but once in elimination you have an established alliance. You can then focus on finding the correct way to balance all 3 bots and score 40 points. That could easily turn the tides of any match. Especially when this year's game is so reliant on an accurate shooter for high scoring matches. One thing that Im going to bring up with team 1678 is to make a computer program which you just input the weight and some other values into it and it outputs a configuration for all 3 bots.

It seems like you might be confusing the scoring systems a bit. The coopertition bonus only applies during qualifying matches, where it is worth as much as a win; getting 40 points for balancing 3 robots only applies during eliminations (otherwise it is worth the same 20 points as balancing 2 robots).

[SniperJoe101]

Originally Posted by bduddy

It seems like you might be confusing the scoring systems a bit. The coopertition bonus only applies during qualifying matches, where it is worth as much as a win; getting 40 points for balancing 3 robots only applies during eliminations (otherwise it is worth the same 20 points as balancing 2 robots).

Yeah. I was confused. Thanks for clearing it up

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by magi65

According to [G23] Robots on the same Alliance may not work together to blockade the Court in an attempt to stop the flow of the Match.

I was talking about only 1 robot doing the defense. Remember, as a defender, the barrier is your friend

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by Silver218

For any defensive bots, what would be your teams strategy? We have talked about a defensive bot to possibly block shots from opposing teams

Remember while in your alliance side your robot can not be taller than 60 in.