Ramp bot vs. Arm bot

[d.courtney]

This years game is a lot about extremes, you'll have your speedy teams that can put ringers on with ease, sporting some omni wheels (I see a lot of them coming in this year), then you'll have your slightly slower defense bot that can block 90% of teams from scoring and sporting a ramp. Those are the primary designs I see, yes you may stray by being a bit slower/less maneuverability so people don't push you around, but still have a great arm, or you could add a small arm to that defense bot to get the bottom and middle rows, but it is extremes we will see.

At the regionals (especially the earlier ones) you will see the ramp bots holding about 6 of 8 top spots, being able to stop robots from scoring and getting a possible 60 big ones, is huge, especially when all the kinks haven't been worked out of the robots. But by the Nationals, I see a different story, a flip around 2 of 8 are ramp bots, you will have lots of scoring robots and all that can do well, all have had tweaks done.]

my team has decided that a ramp/defense bot is likely best bet, we have had very stable drive trains in the past, and have been able to push up to three robots at once (Waterloo 2005), and focusing on a ramp everyone can get up allows us to a possible 60 points.

[slloyd]

i see it this way too.. i like the ramp/lifter approach if only because of its simplicity. really, you don't even need the camera for the most basic ramp bot. it really doesn't matter how great your drive train control is because you are just running interference, no precise robot movement needed. in autonomous mode you just .. guess .. your way over to the opponents area and push/shove to an amount allowable by the rules.

wouldn't it be funny though to see a top notch ramp bot vs. arm bot in the finals? ha. the match would end with the ramp bot chasing the arm bot all around trying to lift it and bring to their own zone for 30 points... otherwise tie game.

[Danielle H]

I know that when our team kind of split up into groups to develop concepts, my friend Andy and I came up with a bot that could do both. It was a bot that had a shallow enough slant (and a piece at the end that moved up and down as to not violate the "wedge shape" guidelines) that a bot could easily drive up on top of it.. as well as an arm that would be used for scoring and lifting.

Andy and I liked it... but apparently it wasn't as good as some of the guys' ideas...

I still think that the most successful bots in this game will be able to do both, but that's just me....

[esemalta]

Say one would make a light duty arm to add to a ramp bot, it's the first time me or my group do FIRST, so I'm wondering how in the world I'm going to make this arm move. I'm thinking of a motor with a worm drive and its rack gear connected to the upper part of the arm, any suggestions whether this will work?

[MrForbes]

You can only use the motors that come in the kit of parts, so you have to figure out a way to make one of them work. Also there are rules about what you can and cannot modify on the motors and built in gearboxes.

REad the FIRST Guidelines, Tips, etc manual on this page it will give you information about the motors, how much torque they can produce, how fast they turn, etc. Ask a mentor about how to understand the numbers, or maybe search on this forum for where someone else has already asked the same questions you have.

You probably will need some type of additional gear or chain or other kind of speed reduction to get the motors you have available to be able to lift the arm without breaking or overheating.

Also look for pictures of robots from past years competition, such as 2005, there were a lot of arm type robots that year.