Low Bar

[Wayne TenBrink]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

And a lot of people seem to be dismissing the natural 'safe zone' created by the batter and tower itself. Our thought process was 'why shoot from far away when I can drive right up to the tower, wedge ourselves on the ramp and take a close shot?' See 2014 robots that wedged themselves against the low goal and the corner of the field.

We had decent success with that approach in 2014 and hope to do something similar this year.

I think there are some inherent advantages to being "compact" (generally synonymous with short) this year in addition to getting under the low bar. In fact, the low bar height is just a convenient target value for "compactness". This field is one big fatigue test rig. In order to survive and function the entire season, your robot will need to be robust. The fewer moving parts, deployable mechanisms, lanky appendages, etc., the better you will be after the umpteenth crossing of the Group B & D defenses. A robot that can collect a boulder, cross a defense, and shoot a high goal without moving anything in the shooter assembly is more likely to survive continued contact with this game. Shooting from the batter requires a bit more driving, but it is a semi-protected shot that can be aimed by driving into a couple of fixed field elements (the tower and the driver station wall). Being able to go under the low bar isn't critical to this approach, but it is a good fit.

Scaling the tower is another matter...