Our new robot

[Todd Lawless]

Team 27 has had great ideas and aspirations for our new robot. What we have so far planned to do is to build a fast, versatile machine capable of controlling/releasing AT LEAST two goals and handle AT LEAST 8 balls.

Answer this:

What good are the balls with nowhere to score them?????

What good(beside 10 pts.) are the goals without the balls?????

We feel that getting balls and controlling the goals are complementary of each other. If you get an opponent that can only do one thing, you can always do the other. Just a though.....


Todd Lawless
Team 27

[Rick]

with all that power to handle 2 goals you will sacrifice alot of speed. Goals weigh 180lbs, remember that.

[Clark Gilbert]

Wow....teams giving away strategies/robot ideas.....


-or-


u could be trying to lead us in the opposite direction of your team.

[Elgin Clock]

Originally posted by Todd Lawless


Answer this:

1) What good are the balls with nowhere to score them?????

2) What good(beside 10 pts.) are the goals without the balls?????


Team 27

Answer key:

The balls are worth one point if they are in a scorable zone and not touching the carpet or the robot,
Does anyone see a unsupported soccer ball pyramid being constructed???? Only the ones that are touching the floor will not count!!!

The goals are worth 10 points with out the balls true, but if the other team has those ten points and you don't then will you be asking that question????

[Morgan Jones]

Originally posted by Elgin Clock


Answer key:

The balls are worth one point if they are in a scorable zone and not touching the carpet or the robot,
Does anyone see a unsupported soccer ball pyramid being constructed???? Only the ones that are touching the floor will not count!!!

While it sounds cool, I think it would be quite difficult to create a robot capable of piling balls as such. Especially since balls have the serious defect of being round . If anyone could come up with such a robot, I'd like to see it! I'm also not sure whether the refs would count them. I would, but that's just me.

[mike o'leary]

to answer morgans question, yes i think the refs would have to count them.

also, todd, im not so sure that its a good idea to score a ton of points. remember, youre score is 3x the other teams. there are only a limited numbre of possible points, which means that if you get a poop load of points, youre score will be 3x a much, much smaller number

[Stephanie]

I agree that it would be neat to build a ball pyramid, however, I was under the impression that the balls must be in the goals in order to score points. Am I correct in thinking this? Shrug. I guess I *could* check the manual

[Jon Abad]

To quote from the good book:

The ball must be “in” a goal such that it is held above the carpeted surface of the
playing field either by direct contact with the goal or by other balls that are “in” the
goal.
Example: Balls wedged between the PVC pipes are “in” if they are not touching the
carpet. Balls sitting on the top or sides of a tipped-over goal are “in” if they are not
touching the carpet.
o The ball must not be in contact with either or your own Alliance’s robots. Contact
with a ball by the opposing Alliance’s robots does not negate its value.

So sadly, the ball pyramid wouldn't count (or be counted by the refs) but it would be crowd favorite!

[Jon Lawton]

Originally posted by Clark Gilbert
Wow....teams giving away strategies/robot ideas.....


-or-


u could be trying to lead us in the opposite direction of your team.

Hey... with the limitless posibilites this game allows for, any ideas are good! Besides, if teams share ideas we will all end up with cooler robots! Just my thought...

[Khalicl13]

First of all, I don't think there are limitless possiblities. If we have 5 major tasks, there can only be 25 combinations of these tasks. That means there will probably be less than 25 different types of bots made this year.

Secondly, if we all share our ideas, most of us will have the same robot.
I'm not saying I'm against sharing ideas though. I personally like to see original ideas.

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by Khalicl13
First of all, I don't think there are limitless possiblities. If we have 5 major tasks, there can only be 25 combinations of these tasks. That means there will probably be less than 25 different types of bots made this year.

How did you come up with 25? I got 31 (assuming you're right that there are 5 major tasks):

There is only one combination of all five capabilities.
There are 5 ways to do all but one of the tasks.
There are 10 combinations of 3 capabilities, 10 combinations of 2 capabilities, and 5 ways to do only one task. (Actually, there is one more possibility: a robot that is somehow incapable of doing any of the tasks. )

[Todd Lawless]

Remember, original ideas don't always come from the 'what' but possibly the 'how'....right?

I understand that there aren't as many tasks to be done, BUT the sky is the limit, in F.I.R.S.T., you never know what will happen.

Todd

[JVN]

Im surprised people are sharing their robot designs... this year brings us back to the "veil of secrecy" we had to deal with before last years Kinder Gentler FIRST.

[Jon Lawton]

Originally posted by Todd Lawless
Remember, original ideas don't always come from the 'what' but possibly the 'how'....right?

I understand that there aren't as many tasks to be done, BUT the sky is the limit, in F.I.R.S.T., you never know what will happen.

Todd

Yes! This was what I was getting at...

Even if we all built our robots inside some aluminium bubble, we would still see some redundancy in robot designs. By sharing ideas, it encourages teams to come up with different ways do accomplish these tasks. I think this can be seen when your team is brainstorming... somone tosses out an idea that seems totally wacky, but it inspires a very practical and useful idea in somone else.

Of course, I could be wrong! Last year was our team's rookie year.

Anyways... I don't mean to start a debate... :/

[oreocookeee]

even if your could design and build a robot that could build a pyramid, it would be too simple for and apponent robot to "accidentally bump into it. the balls would most likely scatter and it would be hard to collect them again.