How far can you shoot legally?

[Rick TYler]

I've read several zillion posts on Delphi this season saying things like, "we can hit the goal from any of the starting positions on the field!" I can see that it is theoretically possible to score on the downward trajectory from the starting position, but how many of you have ever tested this with a shooter that is compliant with the 12 m/sec speed limit? Obviously, this is pretty easy if your launcher is over-powered. It should be difficult with a legal launcher.

Obviously, I haven't tested this myself (we have a goal, and a robot, but our school is closed to us this weekend and there is no good test location), but I didn't see it at Bellevue yesterday.

So, what's going on?

[Donut]

We were shooting from the center of the field (~28 feet) into the center goal, with a shooter mounted about as high as you can get firing at a 45 or 50 degree angle. We are pretty certain the ball was going less than 12 m/s. This was not full power on the shooter even for us, but it is our limit now since we successfully had our wheel begin coming apart shortly afterwards from the centripetal force.

[BandChick]

We seem to be legal at somewhere around 26/27 feet and still making the center goal. So I don't think on the opposite side of the field will be possible, but at least half way and closer will be!

[Ken Loyd]

Shooting at a 45' angle, we barely clear the bottom of the center goal from the center starting box. In a Q/A response from FIRST we were told the shot "should" be legal.

Ken

[Ethulin]

As you can see by these responses most teams have not really taken a radar gun and tried. But to answer your question in the theoretical, we spoke with our physics instructor for quite some time and found that with the proper backspin no spot on the field should be ruled out. Now I am almost possitive that most of these teams who can shoot 3/4ths of the field are violating the rule, but it is possible.

[JamesBrown]

Shooting at 33 feet per second (39 is the max) we can hit 80% from 24 feet, we can hit from further away but accuracy suffers greatly.

[Donut]

Our robot's calculated maximum range shooting at 45 degrees without air resistance is roughly 40 feet (note this is coming out of shooter that releases the balls ~48 inches above the ground).

The shot from the center starting position is ~30 feet. The height of your shooter does effect range by as much as 2 feet. Still, with a low shooter and even including air resistance, I think you could hit this range and still be legal. How are you driving the shooter? We are running a 9" wheel with a motor geared up so that the wheel has a potential maximum speed of 4000 rpm. I know we can shoot beyond the legal limit (hit 45 feet in testing), I don't know how far legal really would get a team though.