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Re: why sooo many bad robots in 07
This year my team ended up as a "drive and bash" robot. I must disagree with sanddrag though, in our case it was definitely not from lack of trying. We attempted to create a lift robot that would allow other robots to drive on a fairly flat platform and then lift them up. Our lift method was a worm gear winch powered by 1 Minibike motor. Despite my objections a number of our mentors were convinced that this had enough power to lift the required load. We met nearly every day for the whole six weeks and the lift mechanism was completed, it just couldn't manage the required weight. Due to a design/weight compromise the lift only worked with relatively balanced weights, but it did not end up having the power to lift 2 robots.
We did have a VERY simple arm that did score the only tube we attempted with it in our first qualifying match. We found that playing defense was the most effective thing our robot could do at that point.
We ended up as the highest seeded rookie team and took our alliance to the finals where we lost.
I think our biggest issue was the realization that although the numbers may crunch, the design may not work. The mentors seemed to expect a very high efficiency out of the system and the actual efficiency was quite a bit lower. Our design was close to working, it managed to get the proper weight up about an inch, it just needed more power.
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2007 Wisconsin Regional Highest Rookie Seed & Regional Finalists (Thanks 930 & 2039)
2008 MN Regional Semifinalists (Thanks 2472 & 1756)
2009 Northstar Regional Semifinalists (Thanks 171 & 525)
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