Driving long?

[jwfoss]

Originally Posted by thefro526

We ended up assessing a few parameters and came to the conclusion that we could build either a long or wide robot without too much hassle and have them both be about equally competitive. These discussions finally culminated in the decision to build a 'Short Long' of sorts. For all intents and purposes, our foot print is ~32"x27.75"

We came to a similar conclusion. After last year we talked to our drivers about what they would like to see moving forward. They loved the 2-speeds we ran last year but wanted the robot to be more stable and have a more predictable center of turning. When this years game was released we determined that stablity while tranversing the bridge/barrier was going to be critical to our design. We finalized on an 8wd (5" Colsons), with dropped center wheels (1/8"). Our overall chassis size is smaller than your average "long" robot at ~34" x 26".

[Grim Tuesday]

We decided to go for wide for two reasons: Firstly, it makes balancing easier with three robots. Sure, you can go for long and rotate on the bridge, but that takes time. What if you could have scored 6 extra points in that time? Our second conclusion was that balls would be a tough commodity in this game, so it was essential that we were able to collect them easily. Thus, a larger surface for the collector was necessary, and we put it on our wide side. We're keeping our CoG low, so we can still go over the barrier.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

We decided to go for wide for two reasons: Firstly, it makes balancing easier with three robots. Sure, you can go for long and rotate on the bridge, but that takes time.

Less than a second for us, and we can drive sideways afterward. I wouldn't recommend it without a zero-turn-radius robot.

[Jon Stratis]

We figure balancing 3 robots is going to be a lot harder than some people think - especially since no one is going to be trying it until the elimination matches. You'll see a lot of teams try for 3 and not get any bonus points because of it, being beaten by people going for two who get it because they've had a lot of practice doing that.