Fuel Truck Bot?

[Gravity]

One of our main tactics during stronghold was resupply for veteran teams. Instead of placing the boulder directly into their robot, we herded all the balls to our side of the playing field. Essentially a ball starvation tactic which worked quite well.

This year I'd see at least one high level team wanting someone to consistently dump large sums of balls next to them so they could stream balls into the boiler.

Food for thought.

[EricH]

Ah, the legendary "A-bomb" strategy from '06!

Yes, this strategy can potentially work. Yes, it may require some coordination.

But honestly, the best way to do it is to be able to dump your hopper of Fuel out your intake straight into your partner's floor intake. See also: 195 feeds 968 on Einstein in '06. (I think that's the right recipient.)

On the other hand, there's a lot more going on than just shooting this year...

[dtengineering]

A "fuel truck" bot should be a good low goal scorer, too. The height of the low goal is very similar to the height of the hopper and fuel stations, so high goal robots should already be designed to accept fuel from a low goal scorer.

If the fuel truck can gather balls from the floor, then that may be of further use.

Definitely a reasonable strategy for a team looking to keep their build simple and focus on doing one thing well.

I'd much rather ally with a Fuel Truck bot that works reliably than a "we can do everything, sometimes, when we're lucky, sort of if only we'd had a bit more time to figure out our code and practice driving" bot.

Jason

[Siri]

A smartly- and well-driven fuel truck with a reliable (not fast) climber that can deliver its autonomous gear (but no others) could do very well at virtually all regionals/districts. It will top out though, likely at some DCMPs and HalfChamps (before 3rd pick). Being able to run 3 gears in teleop would make it almost infinitely viable, though (maybe not IRI)--which essentially just means that the best task for teams aiming at late-in-serpentine drafts to ignore is high goaling. Do not expect the market for top-tier high goalers to be in any way easily penetrable.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by EricH

Ah, the legendary "A-bomb" strategy from '06!

Yes, this strategy can potentially work. Yes, it may require some coordination.

But honestly, the best way to do it is to be able to dump your hopper of Fuel out your intake straight into your partner's floor intake. See also: 195 feeds 968 on Einstein in '06. (I think that's the right recipient.)

On the other hand, there's a lot more going on than just shooting this year...

I remember how excited Shawn was about employing that strategy and when I saw it in action I could see why. It was very effective.

[Lil' Lavery]

When designing robots with the specific intention of interacting with other robots, you want to design your robot to mimic characteristics that random other teams are already designing for. Since you have no good way of establishing a "standard" method of interaction across all of FRC, try to find ways to interact that other teams are already designing for.

Applying that to this case, a bot aiming to reload other robots should design to accommodate their pre-existing loading methods. Make it so you pass them balls in a fashion that their ground loader, hopper loader, or chute loader accept.

[D_Price]

When Ed quotes something you listen!

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

I remember how excited Shawn was about employing that strategy and when I saw it in action I could see why. It was very effective.