FRC 2013 "Best Designs" Log

[JesseK]

Couple of things
- 10-pt "passive" hangs still had to manage c.g. and ground clearance. Plenty of passive hangers couldn't hang reliably because their c.g was too far towards the back, or the rear of the robot was too close to the ground for the minor tipping action. So I'm not sure this one merits a specific section. I think we'd be better off seeing motor vs pneumatic 10-pt hangs.
- 1538's linear shooter had 2 wheels in the "standard" fashion. It also had a horizontal roller that spanned the width of the shooter that gave it LOTS of oomph and made it very consistent. Probably worth putting them in the linear shooter category as well.

- Many robots had large rotary arms this year (like 1538 & 842). A section fully devoted to how these machines were able to maintain great accuracy under high torque situations would be great. I know 1538 used a pancake cylinder that shot into an early-stage steel gear to act as a brake. Not sure of the particulars of the design, though.

- Unique actuators for slot feeding could be very useful in the future. Any active intakes, or redirect-style intakes (like 118) would be awesome.

- There were also GREAT designs for overall game strategy. Like 1425. It's one of the most ingenious & strategic overall designs I've seen employed in recent years. You need to see a video to believe it. They were 60" tall, were a FCS-only type of bot, and strafed when someone tried to block them. It looked like they could shoot THROUGH the opponent's pyramid and still make shots. A few times they strafed all the way over to the unprotected feeder and resumed FCS from there.

- There should also probably be a section on compactness of design. I know I learned a lot this year simply by enforcing the "go under the pyramid" design while also attempting a floor pickup & slot feeder. I'd love to see how other robots were able to efficiently save space.

[AaronLeondar]

Originally Posted by JesseK

- There were also GREAT designs for overall game strategy. Like 1425. It's one of the most ingenious & strategic overall designs I've seen employed in recent years. You need to see a video to believe it. They were 60" tall, were a FCS-only type of bot, and strafed when someone tried to block them. It looked like they could shoot THROUGH the opponent's pyramid and still make shots. A few times they strafed all the way over to the unprotected feeder and resumed FCS from there.

A video to show our shooter can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGYaSL-YE0

And a video of one of our matches with our strafing technique can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr7AQm-zfYU

That also brings me to a very cool concept a saw throughout the season: 2046 using a flyswatter-type device for blocking. Was very amusing to watch, as well as the many other robots who used very unique blockers (610's giant pink one is a top contender as well).

[LeelandS]

Okay, before I release a full update, I'm gonna have to have someone explain this "Butterfly Drive" to me. It seems very similar to what I know as Octocanum, but I presume that since no one has used that name to term it, there is a notable difference between the two. Can someone please elaborate for me?