pic: 1675's REAL IRI Upgrade

[ratdude747]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I think Ratdude actually shows an advantage of tank over mecanum. One of the reasons I want my team to use the same strong 6/8 wheel tank drive (or something similar) is that we can always play defense if we need to. Obviously, we always go into the year thinking we are going to be one of the best scorers at our events, things don't always go to plan and you need to adjust. Things break mid match or your scoring isn't quite as good as you expected, so you may be better served playing defense in some matches. This year at the Championship and IRI we played defense around half of the matches (depending on matchups), and got picked at both events because of our ability to play defense. I think there is no way we would have gotten picked if we had a mecanum drive. I don't recall seeing any mecanum drive play better than just 'ok' defense as they are just too easy to push around.

two different bots, two different games, two different goals, and two different teams.

the mecanum was meant to be an offensive machine. the tank was meant to be a bump hopping defensive machine.

if you use your interpretation, then all it really proves is if your manipulator design is crap, then you will be stuck in defense.

may I ask how mnay defensive bots do you see on einstien? winning regionals? note that the tank bot lost in the semifinals. why:

1. 1018 was in the far back zone, we were middle, and 1501 was by the goal. this was so 1018 could use their 3 ball auto.
2. then 1018 and ourselves would switch places by crossing the bump. we would play defense and 1018 would feed balls to 1501 and score mid zone goals directly.
3. the failure was in the switch... the alliancein the semi picked up that if they blocked the bump, 1018 would be stuck as they were too tall for the tunnel. we were tied up getting them off the bump to let 1018 cross, so their goals were undefended, hence why we lost.

the fact that we were only good in one zone (defensive) was the kiss of death...

also, the reason why both designs in my last post failed was they same for both. we spent so much time screwing around with perfecting designs, trying to do everything, and over-complicating things that there was no time to troubleshoot and find practical bugs. both times the drivers only got 1 day of practice before competition.

so if you plan to have a manipulator that doesn't work, yeah, go tank since being able to score won't be on your agenda.

If you give your design a serious effort and get something for the drivers to play with with plenty of time to spare, then mecanum may be helpful.