Ultimate Robot by year

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by Cory

This thread is analogous to saying "I want a Bugatti Veyron, but I want it for $30,000" These robots couldn't possibly exist, at least not in 2013.

Sometimes it's interesting to speculate about what could have been. I think the OP is trying to get some input as to how a "perfect" bot could exist given what we saw during the season. Also some these robots almost did exist. 469 had an almost flawless robot this year, I'm sure if they really wanted they could have redesigned their robot to allow space and weight for a 30 point climber. However I think they'd have to do something similar to your design or 1986's as a ground pick up + corner climber isn't really possible. I also think that 233 had one of the best conceptual designs from the start. It had a ground pick up and telescoping shooter to be a 60" FCS. I think the complexity of what they tried to design somewhat limited their robot's ability this year, if it had been executed as planned though it could have been phenomenal.

In 2012 I'd say 1717 had a perfect robot, I honestly couldn't see any improvement too it other than perhaps adding a 973 style ground pick up, however their swerve drive somewhat nullifies that necessity. Their barrier crossing mechanism was a single small wedge, it really couldn't have been any smaller or lighter and took up almost no space on their robot so it wasn't really a trade-off, there was no reason not to have it.