Pinning Long Robots

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by IKE

The technique for not getting pinned in the when hit in the middle is a little counter-intuitive.

I am going to leave this one a little open for others to contemplate. Feel free to post the solution if you figure it out. I want to diagram the physics of this technique as it is a really neat and "counter intuitive" thing.

When you say "middle" do you mean the geometric middle of the robot? If so doesn't the answer to your question depend on the center of mass of your robot (among other things).

Assuming your center of mass is behind the center of your robot (as ours is) it seems like you would want to reverse the side away from the pinning robot adding to the rotational moment they are providing.

Brad, "turn into them" is a little vague. For our robot turning towards them by powering the far side forward will result in canceling the moment and us getting pinned. Reversing the far side will add to the moment and spin us around, likely letting us escape. Both of these maneuvers are trying to turn our bot towards the pinner, but only one will work.