Serious question about defense No Flaming!

[EricH]

Originally Posted by Mike Ciance

it is possible that a robot could be capable of unfolding a ramp-like structure large enough to block TWO human player stations, and prevent the bot from being pushed. however, this kind of robot would only be effective in certain situations, and it is unlikely that we will see many, if any, robots like this. if a robot can do all that, and is still able to cap tetras well, then it would be pretty useful.

In the past, FIRST has frowned on blocking two human access areas with one robot. (Example: last year, one robot could not block both ball chutes.) It is highly likely that there is a rule about it somewhere about this, though I can't remember seeing one offhand. A more effective strategy might be to have a "box bot" park in one station, or in between, and block a zone whenever a robot tries to approach that zone, but back off if the other robot got in the zone. Also, it is VERY likely that almost every robot will have something to pull tetras off the auto loader, rendering the whole strategy useless, or close to it.