Bin Collectors?

[Todd Derbyshire]

Its been odd that I haven't heard of this type of strategy yet here at the forum. I am curious if people are trying this strategy or not. Have a robot that collects totes throughout the match dumps them into a zone and stacks a pile and runs up to the ramp. Lemme know if anybody has thought of doing this or is doing this.

[Gamer930]

We have thaught about that strategy but unsure what we are picking as of now. Thinking you will see a lot of bots that can collect bins and also stack them.

[SuperJake]

The day of the kick-off, we sit down and think up all the different possable ways to play the game and what a robot would have to be able to do in order to execute that strategy. We don't work on how the robot will preform the assigned tasks, we just think up the strategy and robot requirements (ie- Strategy: Push boxes into scoring zone, Requirements: 'bot must be fast, 'bot should be able to win a pushing contest, 'bot needs a pusher mechanism, etc...). The hauling arround of a stack was discussed during this phase of brainstorming.

[matt sorgenfrei]

I think you have about three robots in one there. Unless I am totaly mistaken, winning a pushing battle on the ramp and being able to stack bins (which will now be rounded down) are two totally different and equally difficult challenges. Pushing bins around is straightforward enough, but having a robot that can also stack them and also win a pushing battle up on the ramp sounds like a lot for six weeks. I'm not saying it can't be done, in fact I'm sure it WILL be done, but it probably wont be too easy.

[SuperJake]

Originally posted by matt sorgenfrei
I think you have about three robots in one there. Unless I am totaly mistaken, winning a pushing battle on the ramp and being able to stack bins (which will now be rounded down) are two totally different and equally difficult challenges. Pushing bins around is straightforward enough, but having a robot that can also stack them and also win a pushing battle up on the ramp sounds like a lot for six weeks. I'm not saying it can't be done, in fact I'm sure it WILL be done, but it probably wont be too easy.

Matt, I said we thought of strategy, then what the robot had to do. We don't look at how the robot preforms the tasks because that limits your creativity. And the example I gave with the small pusher robot that had to be fast, able to win a pushing battle, and able to push arround boxes was one of the strategies we came up with. A task such as that could easily be overcome with either a switching transmition, or multiple motors on the drive train. Speed * Torque = Power... the more motors you have, the more power you get. Therefore, the more power you have, the more speed AND torque you have. and the Chiapua and new 1/2" Bosch will provide a lot of power.

[matt sorgenfrei]

Jake-
I too was talking about strategy. You are right that you could easily combine speed with power using a transmission, but I wasn't talking about HOW to do it. All I am saying is that in the 1 min and 45 sec you have to drive your robot, expecting it to push bins (pretty easy), win a king of the hill fight (kinda hard), and stack bins (way hard) is a tall order as a strategy, which is what this post began with. It will be done, but it seems like a pretty hard strategy.

[Andy144]

We have tried designing a cage for a couple of days and realizing that stacking 24x17x15 boxes is not fun especially when they each weight 5 pounds. That is a lot of weight and size contrastaints that are going to make the robot almost completely immovable. But it would be really cool to see a cage that extended 11' in the air full of those boxes!

[mjk3730]

What are the benefits to having a pusher that can go under the bar

-Seems to me like if it was fast enough and agile it as good or better than a stacker because ofwould be

OFFENSE - pushing
DEFENSE - destroying stacks moving boxes etc

but would that be possible?

what do you guys think

[Harrison]

You have to remember that the pusher would ALSO have to be able to go over the ramp, because the boxes don't go under the bar (even tho the bot might).

The only real advantage of being able to go under if your a pusher is the fact that it saves time going under the bar rather than over (even tho ull have to go over to push the boxes back to ur own end).

[Exar-Kunn]

Our box launcher is a little inaccurate but were trying to rifle the barrel.