Team 73 Defensive Bot (Almost There)

[reymac]

Originally Posted by JesseK

It's an interesting concept, but I'm not sure the dynamics of the game will work out the way you think it will. If I'm on the key and you're in front of me, I'll simply back up and dare you to follow.

I agree. Being baited into the will be tough for our drivers. But how will you deal with your alliance members clogging up the key with us in front of them.

[Lil' Lavery]

I think this thread needs a reminder that there's no h in mecanum.

[Pun-isher]

If anything, you should try to contain balls and starve opponents because, as other teams have pointed out, we are going to stay in the key for most of the game, and the rest of the game is grabbing balls. Focus on the latter, and ensuring that the opposing team has a minute amount of balls to use.

[remulasce]

HEY THREAD, REMEMBER THAT THERE'S NO 'H' IN MECANUM!

Good enough?

[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by Mullen

If you run a bar across the top front of your hopper and place a net on top you can prevent robots from shooting through you by forcing them to shoot into a ceiling. If the netting is loose enough, angled down and back, and has an opening in the back section of it, it won't prevent you from getting rebounds either. Balls could still be rebounded when they hit the top of you. The loose netting would cut back on their bounce as well as give you a larger collection area up top (with no top, the balls could go through you on the rebound just as they could on the original shot). Just make sure you don't cause a ball jam up there.

That's a better solution than I was thinking of.

[Chris is me]

There are reasons to go mecanum for this strategy, but I don't think you will be more maneuverable with them than a traction drive. Mecanums give up both agility and pushing resistance over the standard rough top. But it's too late to change it anyway.

I like the concept a lot. I think it will need constant tweaking to keep up with the meta game. If your team is prepared to study offensive robots every week and ready to make on the fly changes to adapt and iterate, I'd go for it. Otherwise, it's too much of a gamble.

[sjspry]

Okay, okay, okay. The only thing I have to add to this thread is that Mecanum wheels are not as underpowered as most people make them out to be. While our robot wasn't the best last year, we did make it to nationals with a broken robot playing defense with mecanums. Yes, the wheels have some give, but not if you're applying power to them. You obviously wouldn't beat a purpose-built high-traction bot, but you will be pretty close to evenly matched with everyone else (unless you did something... not right).

Given this, and all other things being equal, I would always choose mecanum wheels due to the maneuverability which is a plus while defending. The only problem this year is that our team is rather short on funding, and our design called for two of the CIMs to be shooting (I still think this is a bad idea).

[Dripto]

I would make only one change. Tie a string across the front of the top frame, and hang a "deadening cloth" or something of that nature. That way you could "block" shooters that dont make it over 60" when it gets to your robot.

As it stands I don't really see you "blocking" anyone, as even the lowest of shooters need to get above 60" over a 30+" bot if the want a nice arc for shooting.

Nice bot however!

[ayeckley]

The orientation of the wheels seems to be incorrect, unless I'm missing something.

[TheOtherGuy]

Originally Posted by ayeckley

The orientation of the wheels seems to be incorrect, unless I'm missing something.

I was about to mention that. The wheels should form an X when viewed from the top and an "O" when viewed from the bottom.

[reymac]

Originally Posted by TheOtherGuy

I was about to mention that. The wheels should form an X when viewed from the top and an "O" when viewed from the bottom.

Thanks for that catch. We will swap the wheels when the pits open at the finger lakes regional.