OFFENSE OR DEFENSE OR MAYBE BOTH??

[NinjahLover]

is there a possibility to make your robot play offense and defense in the game??

[Rizner]

I don't see why not -- have the ability to make shots, but still have a powerful enough drive to push the opponents around when they're trying to score. Just make sure you don't incur penalties.

[Agentarrow]

To answer your question in a word: Yes.
It is entirely possible to engineer a specifically defensive robot, an entirely offensive robot, or a versatile combination robot. Nowhere does this year's FRC manual ban defensive play, and the allowed motors and materials provide a team with more than enough possibilities to build a robot that can adapt and play offense or defense accordingly. This type of versatility is looked upon favorably by other teams and is encouraged by FRC.

Many veteran teams put valuable time and resources into helping rookie teams through guides and manuals to spur your creativity or help with designing systems. The first that comes to my mind are the resources that team 1114 offers on http://www.simbotics.org. These include the Simphone app and the "kitbot on steroids" to assist teams with strategy, planning, design, and execution of the robot. I would highly recommend using these and also utilizing the amazing database of useful information that is Chief Delphi right at your fingertips. These can answer your future questions and give you tips and ideas for your own robots.

Good luck this year, welcome to FIRST.

[Jeffy]

To further answer/ make you think,
Think about the attributes that an offensive robot will have. Compare them to the attributes of a defensive robot.
I think you will find that they are very similar.
Things like-
Precise, controllable and fast movement
A traction related drive system
Ability to easily scoop up balls
Ability to throw balls through the air

[Marc S.]

That was the strategy to the 2011 winning alliance. 254 played offense during the entire match, 111 played offense during the main scoring period and defense during the endgame, and 973 played defense during the main scoring period and offense during the endgame. That strategy worked very well during all 11 elimination matches.

[3v3rnoob]

While it's true that you want some variation on one robot playing defense and another playing offense, consider what you want each to do.

Offensive robot:
Pick balls up off the ground
-how else are you going to be able to score?
Score balls
-what did you think you were going to do with the balls once you picked them up?
Drive
-because the balls are not going magically move into your picking-up device
Aim
-well, that's not essential, but it's a little more reliable than driving to the point where you're confident the shot will go through

Defensive robot
Interfere with the opposing alliance's offense
-whether that's physically blocking shots or bumping them while they are not on the key, you need some way of doing this
Send balls to your alliance's scoring side of the field
-if you can't do this, what's the point of blocking?
-to do so you will need to pick balls up and throw them
Drive
-Yeah...

Anyway, on paper, these look like similar robots. The former is likely going to be more sophisticated, but there is no reason that a robot capable of playing offense will be incapable of playing defense.

You can do both.