Squishing the Spiders

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by d.courtney

I don't see ramps having that big of an advantage, I mean 80% of the teams I have seen so far will have trouble getting onto them (let alone staying on) all due to their clearance. The bots at a tremendous advantage are the ones that lift, where there is simply a 1 inch platform one climbs up and your lifted. (after seeing parts of VCU and New Jersey I am soo glad our team went that route)

The important thing is efficiency and ease of use. You could argue, depending on the setup, that a one inch lip is significantly harder to negotiate than a shallow ramp. And if your lift fails, mechanically or time wise, it fails. No points. If a ramp is well constructed, its the skill of the driver decides the points earned.

But, I will agree with you that the webcasts suggested lifts often proved more effective than ramps- generally because of the lack of side guards. Week two and on may be a different story.