Bearing Blocks vs. Idlers

[apalrd]

Originally Posted by IKE

As a side bar, apalrd & BJC learned a very important lesson in their testing.
Some design for top speed. Some design for acceleration.
Time to distance though can be key in some games (pick and place games).

For shorter distances, acceleration is more important. For longer distances top speed might be more important. We initially started the season with an emphasis on top speed assuming full field width runs (about 24 feet) and full field length runs (about 50 feet). In reality, with the barrier in the middle slowing you down, and the fact that you typically went from 1 side to the middle, the typical sprint was more in line with 10-15 feet. Because of this (and other reasons), the guys regeared for MSC and the Championship to accelerate better.

After exams, I was planning on writing a paper about this and the simulation we did to back up/verify the change, including the battery modeling.