Ball or Bar

[Garrix]

Originally Posted by Mike Norton

If you look at it. Auto mode is very important. Get the 2X Ball drag the goal under the balls and then wait for the 45 sec to release the balls. Balls will fall into the goal nobody can touch the balls already in the goals.

About hanging. This was fun to watch a couple of years ago when we had to hang. I would say only 30% of the people could hang the rest tried but couldn't.

This year, it is a lot higher and harder to get to. I am betting a lot of robots are going to be flipped over. Once again when we had the puck only 25% could get up onto it fast enough to be able to keep other off.

Look at when we had to get a big ball and put it onto the goal that was on the ramp. Only a few teams that could do this fast enough to be good. I would say only about 50% of those teams could do this and only 10% could do it fast.

SO after all that I would say the best robot will in the auto mode take the 2X ball push the goal to were when the balls drop the balls will fall into it. Once they get control, to be able to get up onto the top platform and control it. Then cap the goal at the end and hang.

I can see that it will come to a lot of hitting on top of the platform. Make your robot to be hit and hit often up there.

Putting the goal underneath the balls is a very good idea, but remember, they are like kickballs, and are very bouncy, so not all of them will make it in.

I see hanging as two challenges within itself. First you actually have to get onto the platform successfully which would require a modified drive system and possibly some size limitations to get past the stationary goal, and then you have to hang from the 10ft bar, which is an even greater challenge.

Hanger bots won't be as effective as ball bots because a hanger bot will need time to maneuver onto the ramp, it will have to fight other bots, and then intiate the hanging process. That'll take perhaps 30-40 seconds, that could be better spent herding balls to the human player and placing 2x balls on the goals.

If you had a 2x ball bot, I would suggest to avoid the ramp area completely and focus on a good auto mode, an excellent 2x ball arm, and perhaps some device that could double as a bulldozer or ball corral blocker.

Has anyone ever considered pushing your opponent's small balls out of the playing field?

[srjjs]

Everyone uses the same small balls, so that wouldn't help too much. I think the best way to keep your opponent from scoring is to block their corrals.

[Solace]

why is everyone assuming that you have to be on top of the platform in order to grab the bar?

[that1guy]

are team has an awesome idea so we can do all of them relativly easy.

[MichalSkiba]

The bar will always yield 50 points IF your robot can latch an has consulted Jenny Craig prior to your regional. Shooting gaurds can only shoot as many balls as they are fed, and they can do it in bursts. We estimated that it will take 5-6 seconds to fire, aim and reload.

Bots that can place 2x multip. ontop of the goal will only win if they have [many] more balls in then thier bar grabbing opponents. They will require more time to manipulate and place thier target then bar grabbers would require to latch and pull up. This means less time to gather balls.

Well, we'll have to wait and see [Team 854's solution ].

[M. Hicken]

we are not 100% sure yet, but each of us is theorizing. I have a design that can do all 3, this way, if out partner can only do one, we can do the other
but we have to keep weight and time of operation involded

[KenWittlief]

it takes a lot more horsepower to lift your robot than it does to lift the 2X ball, so you can move the 2X ball around faster than you can lift your bot

if you have at least 11 of the 52 balls on the field in your goal - then you will get more points by capping your goal than you will by hanging yourself

plus you can uncap your opponets goal with the same device

[roboticscom13]

Bottom line all of the games in the past (this one is no exception), comes down to one thing.....consistancy. If you look back at the past games the teams that won, (championchips, regioals, etc.) were robots that were consistant every time. Wildstangs were consistantly on the ramp right after autonomous and controlled the basic end result of the game. If your robot is not consistant then you will be playing the games by the skin of your teeth. I have learned this throughout the four years i have been involved.

SO.... what it comes down to is, if you can do the SAME thing time after time, whatever your design might be, you will be successful.

[KenWittlief]

you will be successfull at doing what your bot was designed to do

but if you pick the wrong thing to design it to do, you might, for example, consistanly be able to hang in every match

and still lose every match.

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

you will be successfull at doing what your bot was designed to do

but if you pick the wrong thing to design it to do, you might, for example, consistanly be able to hang in every match

and still lose every match.

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

[roboticscom13]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

exactly my point

[MichalSkiba]

A serious point for all teams:

Don't plan for doing everything. Thats what we did last year. We were able to do everything, but not one thing well, and that became our weak point. Additionally, when teams looked for alliance partners, they wanted a bot that could perform a complementing function. My suggestion, if you are looking for a challange, is to design a bot that can do one thing VERY well, EVERY time without a doubt, and then try to incorperate additional functions.

[abeD]

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

You may get drafted though, last year the teams that crushed the other team ended up scoring low and not making it to the top 8 but they were drafted for finals.

Well only problem is that they are completely different games (this year much more offense than defense). In this game it isnt so easy to "crush" your opponents as it was last year. I beleive that most of good teams will all score a high number of points and play defense by playing offense...

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by abeD

Well only problem is that they are completely different games (this year much more offense than defense). In this game it isnt so easy to "crush" your opponents as it was last year. I beleive that most of good teams will all score a high number of points and play defense by playing offense...

You'll definitley get some crushing during the finals though.

[kevin.li.rit]

Originally Posted by MichalSkiba

A serious point for all teams:

Don't plan for doing everything. Thats what we did last year. We were able to do everything, but not one thing well, and that became our weak point. Additionally, when teams looked for alliance partners, they wanted a bot that could perform a complementing function. My suggestion, if you are looking for a challange, is to design a bot that can do one thing VERY well, EVERY time without a doubt, and then try to incorperate additional functions.

Originally Posted by Coffeeism

Your definitely right, doing one thing well is extremely important. If you focus on doing too many things you won't be able to do anything effectively to win a match or be considered for drafting. If you do one thing well teams will probably look for two different robots each with it's own specialty or two robots that do the same thing very well for consistency.

We seem to think alike.