New VEX Game Announced!

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Smoores

I've already managed to build a wall/arm that has a 3 foot span. I could add another 2 feet if that was my sole strategy.

Suppose you erect a wall with a 5 foot wing span and a non-trivial height over the wall that is part of the field.

If I stroll up with my little dumping bot; will I

a) Be able to simply race you to a spot in the 7 feet of the field's width that your wall doesn't cover and be able to beat you there?
b) Be able to easily push either end of your wall out of the way because I have the advantage of leverage when I push on a part of the wall that far from the main body of your robot and because a wall that large made of Vex metal has to be pretty flexible.

I would like to see a picture of what you have built, no matter what. Building it does seem to be a interesting experiment and learning experience, but I just can't imagine it being effective in a Clean Sweep match.

On the other hand, you might be getting good training for deploying solar cell arrays or other structures in outer space, or for bridging small rivers here on earth.

Blake

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

If I was building a big giant unfolding wall of Vex plating, I'd just have the center stretch more than 2 feet. But a big, giant wall is unfeasible because your alliance partner can't break it either. A sliding wall on some kind of omnidirectional chassis, be it crab or omniwheel, would probably be better.

Man, why aren't there more Vex crab drives?

Well as long as you knock most of the footballs to the other side in autonomous it doesn't matter what your partner does, because you've nasically won, but the difficulty of build a mega wall is the major problem.

[ttldomination]

If you do manage to construct this "wall." What is the probability that you'll be able to maneuver as well as the robot which scrambles to score?

If you're up against a decent offensive bot, then the robot should be able to hold a LARGE amount of balls and then should be able to proceed and score them.

As easy as it may seem to build a bot with a large wall, I agree with gblake on that it won't be that effective during the match.

[Chris is me]

I can see a lot more slightly geared up drive trains. You could unfold a wall with 2 motors, then power the drivetrain with 8 and gear it up slightly. No pushing matches, remember?

Then again, heavy walls would make this a bit of an issue. Can you speed-hole in Vex?

[gblake]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

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Can you speed-hole in Vex?

If you don't like the existing holes, you may certainly drill more.

[phr34kR]

What about rollers for the wall?
Im thinking if you could lift your wall up past the goals then lower it in the middle of both of them and if you had wheels on the bottom of your wall so you could roll along it (omni drive would be a necessity) Then there would be no chance of being pushed away from the divider also would make for a very stable robot as the heavy wall will be supported by the field.

[ttldomination]

Well, robots aren't allowed to the cross the wall and go over the other side and you're talking about putting a wall down on the other side...I think you might get disabled.

[gblake]

Well, robots aren't allowed to the cross the wall and go over the other side ....

Not quite correct

Robots are not allowed to touch the opposite side's tiles. Robots are allowed reach over/under the wall

[ttldomination]

Originally Posted by gblake

Not quite correct

Robots are not allowed to touch the opposite side's tiles. Robots are allowed reach over/under the wall

Yes you're correct, but the post before me said...

Originally Posted by phr34kR

..and if you had wheels on the bottom of your wall so you could roll along it (omni drive would be a necessity) ..

I'm assuming the "it" is the floor.

[bobwrit]

Well, I guess 1977 is in VRC for this year also.

[astallasalion]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

If I was building a big giant unfolding wall of Vex plating, I'd just have the center stretch more than 2 feet. But a big, giant wall is unfeasible because your alliance partner can't break it either. A sliding wall on some kind of omnidirectional chassis, be it crab or omniwheel, would probably be better.

Man, why aren't there more Vex crab drives?

Well, we're only allowed 10 motors/servos per robot, and crab has to have each wheel independently driven. On top of that, we need two motors/servos to turn the wheels for coax. There are a few teams that use 6 motors on their drivetrain but not a lot, as most of them use their motors to build manipulators.

For this game I'm even contemplating using 2 drive motors geared for torque, just because I need all of my motors for the manipulator(s).

[Ben Mitchell]

I registered three teams while still in Texas and my kids got to spend the plane ride home with a box of sample game scoring objects and a notebook for writing ideas.

It was cleanly done and I really liked having the new game out now - my students can work on it over the summer if they so desire.

[595294001]

My only complaint is about the time frame. For those of us 10-20 hours a week, (while I'm sure that will be toned down for summer), the only realistic use for more time, would be a more advanced autonomous. Plus it gives makes recruiting hard with no time between seasons to get the people coming into grade 10 interested. And finally it means that you lose some of the real-life-esque pressure the old time frame provided, I mean look at FRC...

[Andrew Bates]

So you would prefer to be under a ton of pressure to get something done in time instead of being able to relax think ideas through experiment and then decided to build? I personally prefer this time frame plenty of time to work around other events.

[gblake]

Originally Posted by 595294001

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a more advanced autonomous.
...

Good plan - I look forward to seeing it in action

Originally Posted by 595294001

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Plus it gives makes recruiting hard with no time between seasons to get the people coming into grade 10 interested.
...

Then you should get them interested during grade 8 and have them compete in at least one scrimmage that year. That way, by the time they reach grade 10 they are already both interested and experienced.