Climbing Mechanism Ideas

[Alex.q]

Originally Posted by sentientfungus

Actually we were thinking sans the tumbling, as that seems overly complicated. As much as I love to see robots flipping over, it seems slower and more prone to failure than a (fairly) straight shot up the pyramid.

Do you think that the horseshoe is an inefficient use of perimeter? Or is it really just having an open side? I am interested in seeing what mechanism makes that make sense though...

If what you mean by a horseshoe shaped frame is a frame wih a cutout on one side for an intake mechanism or for climbing purposes, it does not get included in the 112 inches of robot perimeter; the perimeter is the convex frame of the robot, so it does not include cutouts. See the rectangluar robot picture in Rule R03, figure 4.1.

I think there will be teams that manage to climb by repeated flipping the robot as previously described, but in my understanding, it would require a failry flat and symmetric robot, which could heavily constrain the designs of a shooter and hopper.