Defense: Pushing and Blocking

[RogerR]

with the profusion of high traction wheels and two speed transmissions, i expect that there's a pretty good chance that the opponent's robot will have the same (if not better) pushing force as yours. i think whats going to make or break teams both offensively and defensively will be their machines' maneuverability.

[Cody Carey]

You know what they say... “The best defense is a good offense”

[rocknthehawk]

Originally Posted by greencactus3

oh man, a robot that lays frame. us minitruckers will LOVE to see this. a couple titanium dragblocks and then you'd have a LOT of fun at night too.
monoleafed air ride is bad. nice 5links and stuff is mucho better for the truck.
for pics of s10s dragging and laying just browse the s10forum.com

yeah, the picture i had was from the s10forum, but it is down right now. Monoleafed is crap, the ride quality is horrible. hahaha dragblocks would be great.

i agree with the links. I want to build a robot with a mini-4 link this summer. then i'll set it down on air ride next to my ranger.

[dude__hi]

We're built for speed, shooting and pushing strenght, we should be able to push at least 90% of other robots around

[Faith]

Originally Posted by Cody C

You know what they say... “The best defense is a good offense”

That is what I was going to say..

[Mike Norton]

How can a majority of the teams have a transmission with above-average pushing power?

I have to say being in this for over 12 years we know what it takes to have a strong robot. And yes we have a strong robot.

What teams fail to realize is if you are going to push other robots around you better have a strong base to be able to take the hits. And a robot that will not break on you. I have seen so many robots that show up and will make one match and then break so badly they are not able to do what they think they could do.

another thing is yes you might have a good pushing robot but if someone know how to stop your power what then. there are so many ways to stop a strong robot. But unless you have had a lot of time and know the past you will be a robot with a lot of power but will not be able to use it wisely


Mike

[phrontist]

Verdomme! Almost everyone is going to have the same amount of defensive ability, techincally speaking. I can assess the defensive capability of your robot with two questions:

1) What is the net power rating of all of your drive motors?
2) What is your lowest gear ratio?

That's all folks! After that it really comes down to driver skill, the range of which is fairly minimal in my experience. So most of the time, robots will be at a stalemate defensively, or it will be a complete shutout.

The game will be decided by your offensive capability.

[RogerR]

Originally Posted by phrontist

Verdomme! Almost everyone is going to have the same amount of defensive ability, techincally speaking. I can assess the defensive capability of your robot with two questions:

1) What is the net power rating of all of your drive motors?
2) What is your lowest gear ratio?

That's all folks! After that it really comes down to driver skill, the range of which is fairly minimal in my experience. So most of the time, robots will be at a stalemate defensively, or it will be a complete shutout.

The game will be decided by your offensive capability.

i think you're over simplifying it a bit. no matter how much power your motors are putting out, or how low you gear them, if you have an 80 lb robot running two wheel drive on slick skyway caster wheels, then odds are they won't be winning many pushing contests. a few additional important questions might be:

3) what is the coef. of friction of your drive wheels?
4) what percentage of your wheels are driven?
5) how much does your robot weigh?

[akshar]

with a 2gear transmission, we proved today that we can be a very good defensive bot..

[Richsgt]

Defense, as it turned out to be today, is a huge part of the game. One of the robots with no true offensive capabilities made it to a top seed at the scrimmage, whereas ours with a full drive system powered right was able to knock most shooters out of the way, pushing them sideways across the field, nullifying their abilities. As time progresses defense will probably become lesa of focus as offensive strategy changes to counteract, eg less stationary systems that were shown today