Teamwork Strategy for Scoring

[Rick Wagner]

Originally Posted by Vikesrock

There is a ton of engineering that would have to go into a robot designed to pin other robots. In order to be able to reliably pin other robots you will likely need either more maneuverability, more force or both. Getting either of those two aspects in a robot this year is quite difficult and will require significant engineering (optimized drive system, propeller/fan propulsion, or other unique robot components). Your team may feel that it is not inspirational to design a robot with such a "vanilla" function, but many teams see the elegance in selecting a strategic niche of the game and designing a robot that can fulfill that role.

Well said. Crab drives are very difficult engineering feats, with non-trivial control system problems to solve. A crab drive 'bot may be the best to apprehend and push another robot this year. And nobody suggests you wouldn't want to fill the victim's trailer while you're pushing him, either.

Coordinating a teamwork strategy within an alliance presents its own challenges that will task the leadership, social, and organizational skills of your team. FIRST is about math, science, and engineering, but it's also about a lot of other things, including management, leadership, cooperation, and teamwork.