Tall or Short robot

[Dumper FTW 435]

Originally Posted by SteveDeonarine0

One of my member who goes by the name cody says that a tall robot is hetter because you can do more with it

I disagree with this assumption. Most of the time, you can do just as much with a shorter robot as you can with a taller robot. It is however, a greater design challenge. It means you need to optimize the space used on your robot. I highly recommend you design your robot to as small as you can, while still meeting all the abilities you have deemed important. Sometimes this means a tall robot, but often you'll find that you can get away with a shorter one.

Originally Posted by Meowzaz

But a tall robot may have a high center of gravity, which means when it goes over the rough terrain or rock wall defenses it can tip over. For this game it seems the best to make a short robot with a lowered drive train so there is more clearance and a lesser chance of being high centered on a defense.

This is extremely important. Year after year I see robots struggle because their center of gravity is far too high. 2012 is the game that sticks out most to me. There were a lot of top heavy robots tipping over, while the smaller robots performed far better. Whenever your dealing with rugged terrain or driving over obstructions, I HIGHLY recommend you go with a low center of gravity.

So in summary, try to get a low center of gravity and a smaller robot. Although a large robot is sometimes inevitable, it rarely is. The only thing that may require a large robot this year is shooting for the high goal, and even then I'm sure there are ways to get away with a small robot. Our 2012 robot was quite small and was still able to score on those high goals.

EDIT:
I should specify that when I'm promoting a small robot, I don't necessarily mean a robot small enough to fit under the low bar. That is a serious high restriction that will make design very difficult. However, as I've stated, a small size has other advantages.