Team 254's 2009 Robot - "Devastator"

[JVN]

Originally Posted by sdcantrell56

I too don't necessarily think a power dumper is the best strategy. I am leaning toward both power dumpers and shooters being equal so long as both are built to emphasize there particular strengths. I do believe that any shooter designed for long distances is not going to be particularly effective. I see a rapid fire short range turreted shooter as being on par if not better than power dumpers in many cases. I also think that 254's bot is truly scary as a dumper. Luckily I don't think many dumper designs will be capable of such absurd firepower. As soon as a team makes one wrong move driving which will happen, 254 will be able to offload at least 15+ balls.

IMHO...
The question is not about short range or long range, not about turreted or stationary. The question is about throughput. If you can spit those balls out fast enough you are by definition a "dumper".

Once you take throughput out of the equation it is about accuracy. There are an infinite number of factors any number of which can be BLENDED into a design. To label a robot as a "shooter" or a "dumper" is strange to me.

There is a spectrum.
On one side we have a robot that can fire off 45 shots from 50 feet away using their super magic camera code in under 5 seconds and score 100% in 2 goals at once.
On the other side we have a robot that fires 1 ball every 10 seconds and can only score in a goal that is touching their robot and misses 50% of the time.

We all obviously want the first example, but we make tradeoffs based on our team's individual limitations. 148 found a balance of range-accuracy-speed-volume that made us very happy. Every other team found their own balance. Some teams don't need to find a balance because they are awesome enough to do EVERYTHING. Most teams cannot do this (or were too chicken to try... us included.)

I'm expecting 71 to unveil their Orbit Ball Howlitzer any day now that makes our robot look like a children's toy.

Honestly... the only stat which matters is the number in your "W" column. I guess we'll wait and see. I'm willing to bet that even if you gave 254 an inferior robot they'd have a whole pile of W's, and NOTHING about this robot is "inferior".

-John