What is the hardest (yet possible) task in this year's game?

[MrBamboo]

Originally Posted by yodameister

How about one bot collecting and holding all 80 balls on the playing field? That would be quite interesting to see.

The problem with that is since any ball you score is up to the opponent to put back into the field, the only real feasible way to achieve that is you don't score any points after autonomous mode. And by the time you have all the balls, probably around the last quarter if ever, they will just put all three of their robots defending your one robot that has balls, making it impossible to score those 80 balls, which most likely means you lose

[MattB703]

Originally Posted by MrBamboo

The problem with that is since any ball you score is up to the opponent to put back into the field, the only real feasible way to achieve that is you don't score any points after autonomous mode. And by the time you have all the balls, probably around the last quarter if ever, they will just put all three of their robots defending your one robot that has balls, making it impossible to score those 80 balls, which most likely means you lose

Don't forget that the hypothetical robot holding all 80 balls has 2 partner robots to help "move" the opposing robots out of the way. Certainly you have a valid point, but I do believe that hording and scoring late is going to be a powerful strategy.

[KenWittlief]

As the weeks go by and the physics of the game sinks in, I think the real magic trick is going to be finding a way to guard or block the center goal, parked infront of it (not chasing robots around to block their shots).

I notice the rules say you cannot extend in a 'stable configuration' above a certain height - does that mean you could take swipes at a ball in flight, if your flailing arms are not 'stable' ?

Could you have a bot with a big sticky tongue that shoots out and snatches balls out of the air, like flys?

<G16>
Maximum Height - A ROBOT may not extend above 60” above the floor or the ALLIANCE PLATFORM in a stable configuration at any time during a match...

[MrBamboo]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

As the weeks go by and the physics of the game sinks in, I think the real magic trick is going to be finding a way to guard or block the center goal, parked infront of it (not chasing robots around to block their shots).

I notice the rules say you cannot extend in a 'stable manner' above a certain height - does that mean you could take swipes at a ball in flight, if your flayling arms are not intristically 'stable' ?

I think the rule means that its ok if you exceed the height limit if an accident happens and your robot flips over and the diagonals goes over 5 feet.

Other wise the height rule pretty much says you cannot block the goal or other robot's firing mechanism. Well unless their shooter is not placed at the max height, which I doubt since that would make their shooter very easily blocked.

The closest thing I've heard about interfering with a shooter other than just plain collision of robots is using pneumatics to blow air in front of opponent shooters to offset the flight path of the launched ball. However I'm not entirely sure this is legal so you probably should check on that. Also since you have to take time to recompress air it will not be consistant.

[Chief Samwize]

How about scoring five out of ten balls in the center goal from the starting position during autonomous

[Sachiel7]

What about scoring all 10? I think its possible, yet difficult...for some....

[vadyr]

how about shooting while moving?

[Sachiel7]

Ah that's fairly simple

[vadyr]

Originally Posted by Sachiel7

Ah that's fairly simple

well yea we can do it...but i mean shooting all 10 balls in autonomous while moving and getting atleast most of them in

[blaskay16]

I think the autonomous is the hardest part of this years competition because of the alloted time. its only 10 second. fortunately at team 815 we have 15 different autonomous codes

[Olde Bill]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

Okay, couple things wrong here. First of all, assuming an autonomous challenge, you could, by yourself, only shoot ten balls. Now, That is a ball every 7/10 of a second, which (look at you watch) is not that short a period using a flywheel to throw them. Now, the challenge assumes that you SHOOT the balls in 7 seconds, so you get three second grace period to find and lock onto the target. Sounds pretty possible to me, especially if you did it without moving from your starting position.

With a fixed angle 'cannon' and the camera used only to aim the robot at the giant 30" hole, you should (if you maximize the height of the cannon and the muzzle velocity) be able to hit with all 10 balls. The only problem will be getting your throwing mechanism up to speed with enough sustainable momentum to complete firing in 10 seconds.

[Arkorobotics]

a wise man once told me:

"Dude, don't get to head of yourself" -some wise man

You don't have to do the center goal, and call it hard, getting those corner goals is hard enough too. Getting the ball is hard too. THIS WHOLE GAME IS A CHALLENGE, IT'S NOT EASY!

[ngreen]

I'd be interested to see a balled launched and then knocked out of the air by the opponents ball, intentionally.

If a team could figure out Star Wars I would be pretty impressed.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by ngreen

I'd be interested to see a balled launched and then knocked out of the air by the opponents ball, intentionally.

If a team could figure out Star Wars I would be pretty impressed.

We attempted this and did a few tests. An electric leaf blower could do it, but only if we tracked the ball on it's course (not very easy). Also, the power requirments were too great (it's only one 12V battery)
We also tried a garbage can Airzooka, but it didn't provide enough air power to reasonably and acurately push a ball, not to mention timing would be a real pain...all in all, we determined the concept was not reliable or feasible enough to merit basing a robot on it. If any other team can do this, MAJOR PROPS!!!

[Donut]

That would be quite an impressive defensive robot. If anyone does that I'm going to want to see that in action.

To change some of my last post, the shot from behind half-court would not be required to use the camera, because I don't know if it has enough range to see the target (accurately) from long distances.

I also want to see one alliance score all 30 balls they start with into any combination of the goals during autonomous, as long as all 30 balls score.