How Would You Change Your Robot

[Chris is me]

I could go on and on and on. I'll probably make a few posts on this topic, as the answer differs depending on the constraints (keeping the same robot design, starting from scratch, etc). I will say any designer that doesn't hate their robot by the end of the year is either really, really good at their job or... not so good at it. There is always something to improve.

If I had to start from scratch again, I would focus on the following attributes above all else:

• Floor Pickup that Kiss Passes
• HP Loadable
• Lob Shot (One Zone Truss / Front of Low Goal Score)

That's it. I would have no capacity for varying shot strength to shoot from range. The effort to reward ratio isn't worth it when those shots only matter in niche situations. The only exception might be a more linear shot for trussing to a human player. There are reasons to do more than this, but this is the best and simplest focus for 2791.

Numerous ways exist to accomplish this set of tasks - even from within the "arm/claw robot" paradigm we built in this year. I think the "best" way for us to have done this would have been to have built a 254-style backspin shooter with a fixed trajectory. Instead of two intakes and an articulating shooter back, I'd want one intake (in back?) and a pop-out lexan "chute" on the other side for simpler human loading. The way the Poofs did it performs better and meets their objectives better, but this approach drastically simplifies things which is better for our team.

The "claw" intake I believe can be made better than the best "bar" intake, but it turns out at the top level, intake performance was secondary to other factors leading to a quick cycle time. So as long as the performance dip wasn't massive (and it wasn't) a bar intake is the way to go to facilitate kiss passing.

More later, if anyone's interested and I still have homework to avoid.