Recycle Rush: Speed, Torque, or Both

[billbo911]

Originally Posted by Ether

Imagine you have 2 robots which are identical in every way, except that Robot A is geared for 8 fps, and Robot B is geared for 16fps but has the motor voltage limited to 50%.

Which robot has better fine control of small slow-speed motions?

Great thought experiment! Thanks Ether.

Before I can give a detailed response with my opinion, I need to know one piece of information.
How was "the motor voltage limited to 50%" achieved?

Did the full range of the input just get divided by two, thus yielding half the number of steps of control resolution and half the maximum output?
Or, did the voltage just get capped at 50%, thus yielding half the number of steps of control resolution and half the maximum output?
Or, did the delta between each step of resolution in the input get divided by two, thus yielding the same resolution, but half the maximum output?

[IronicDeadBird]

This years game if it was just me and no team and I actually did mechanical I wouldn't focus on those factors I would focus these two factors.
1. Footprint:
That is to say the amount of actual space you take up during the actions you need to perform to score. The smaller the footprint the more breathing room you and your team have. The ideal is the individual teams robots footprints should never overlap cause nobody likes stepping on toes.
2. Consistency:
The game pieces chosen this year are really well thought out. I mean it doesn't make sense that we are in a landfill full of totes I understand but the way these totes effect design choices and specifically how it counterbalances different drive base choices. Mecanum has been known to have weight problems. I've seen some sloppy driving on skid steer getting stuck in a corner in a bad way.

[JamesCH95]

Originally Posted by markmcgary

Further reading and learning on this and other threads compels me to switch sides. I'm liking Robot A. (And, we need to buy some appropriate cluster and output gears.)

Now you're getting it!

Any limit to motor voltage in code vs gearing changes will almost assuredly hurt overall performance in basically every metric: acceleration, electrical consumption, control, and heat input to the motor. One need only consult motor power and efficiency curves to confirm.