What do you think will be important this year?

[Tetraman]

Neither the tunnel or bump will be an effective mode of traveling from one zone to another. How do we move from zone to zone? You don't, at least, once you get your robot where you want it - you keep it there, and let your mechanisms do the scoring for you. One robot moves balls from the midzone to the alliance zone, and a second moves balls of the alliance zone to the goal. It's that simple.

Why you would need extra robots in a zone is, currently, beyond me.

[jamie_1930]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

Neither the tunnel or bump will be an effective mode of traveling from one zone to another. How do we move from zone to zone? You don't, at least, once you get your robot where you want it - you keep it there, and let your mechanisms do the scoring for you. One robot moves balls from the midzone to the alliance zone, and a second moves balls of the alliance zone to the goal. It's that simple.

Why you would need extra robots in a zone is, currently, beyond me.

It all depends on how each teams strategy plays out in my opinion it would be best to stay in your area and be able to score effectively from there, but it's one of those things where you want the option to be able to travel from zone to zone.

[RMiller]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

Neither the tunnel or bump will be an effective mode of traveling from one zone to another. How do we move from zone to zone? You don't, at least, once you get your robot where you want it - you keep it there, and let your mechanisms do the scoring for you. One robot moves balls from the midzone to the alliance zone, and a second moves balls of the alliance zone to the goal. It's that simple.

Why you would need extra robots in a zone is, currently, beyond me.

For a robot in the opposing alliance's zone, getting back to the middle section might be important, depending on their goal.

Also, if there is only one robot working a zone, it might be quite easy to block balls from being passed from one zone to another.

[lemon1324]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

Neither the tunnel or bump will be an effective mode of traveling from one zone to another. How do we move from zone to zone? You don't, at least, once you get your robot where you want it - you keep it there, and let your mechanisms do the scoring for you. One robot moves balls from the midzone to the alliance zone, and a second moves balls of the alliance zone to the goal. It's that simple.

Why you would need extra robots in a zone is, currently, beyond me.

As the balls are reintroduced at midfield, it could be advantageous to bring the third robot from the opponent's end to midfield. That would give you an edge in gaining possession of reintroduced balls.

[fredliu168]

Did anyone think of a design where the robot just locks itself (drive like 71 in 2001) under the opponent ball feeder and just shoots the balls to their zone?

Would that be legal?

[kirtar]

Originally Posted by fredliu168

Did anyone think of a design where the robot just locks itself (drive like 71 in 2001) under the opponent ball feeder and just shoots the balls to their zone?

Would that be legal?

As long as it does not "carry" the ball at any point in time, it should be fine. In other words, if your mechanism gets stuck, you get penalized along with not being able to do anything.

Also, your mechanism must be below the bumper zone otherwise you will get a penalty every time a ball goes through your mechanism.

After answering this, I would like to remind everyone that the topic is what is important to keep track of and not what is legal or what strategies will be best. Basically what would you want to record when scouting. Odds are you will want to be broad in your specification (e.g. can it traverse the field rather than "can it swing", and only then if so, how?).

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by fredliu168

Did anyone think of a design where the robot just locks itself (drive like 71 in 2001) under the opponent ball feeder and just shoots the balls to their zone?

Would that be legal?

It can't be.

Since the ball has to be touching the carpet, and can only be 3 inches under the robot, you can't catch it and have it roll down a ramp into a mechanism, as it's being funneled and thus its direction of travel sticks with you when spun.

Also, metal on carpet.

[DiehardCybercard]

one thing I don't think I saw much was, strong autonomous. I wouldn't say off the bat that there is one or two particularly "good" autonomous plans, but having the ability to readily change autons would be key in a game like this were teamwork is essential.

[kjolana1124]

Not only for the teamwork, but for the purpose of not being too predictable for your opponents, a strong autonomous would be good. Especially since you'll have so many options with the ability to chose the ball's locations.

[RMiller]

Originally Posted by kjolana1124

Not only for the teamwork, but for the purpose of not being too predictable for your opponents, a strong autonomous would be good. Especially since you'll have so many options with the ability to chose the ball's locations.

I wouldn't be too worried about opponents strategies during autonomous. I would more worry about being able to cooperate with your alliance partners.

<G28> AUTONOMOUS PERIOD ROBOT Movement - During the AUTONOMOUS PERIOD, a ROBOT cannot completely cross the CENTER LINE. Violation: Two PENALTIES; plus two PENALTIES and a YELLOW CARD if a BALL or ROBOT is contacted after completely crossing the CENTER LINE, and two additional PENALTIES for each additional BALL or ROBOT contacted.

[kirtar]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

It can't be.

Since the ball has to be touching the carpet, and can only be 3 inches under the robot, you can't catch it and have it roll down a ramp into a mechanism, as it's being funneled and thus its direction of travel sticks with you when spun.

Also, metal on carpet.

True, although there's still nothing against say, making the top of your robot such that a ball will bounce off of it in a given direction (i.e. angle the top of your robot). This is not an active mechanism, so we don't have a problem there (It's not even really a mechanism). It is in fact a method to avoid carrying balls as it will cause them to roll or (more likely) bounce off.

It is difficult to determine to whether a ball rolling down a ramp (with no side boards) is carrying because if the robot turns, the ball will probably remain in approximately the same absolute position (pulling a tablecloth from under glasses if you will). In addition, any movement in the other degrees of freedom (moving forward, back, left, right) would certainly cause a difference in relative position. As such, I would suggest that a ball rolling down would not qualify as possession, and therefore does not qualify as carrying.

As for the metal on carpet issue, that is not arguable because it is explicitly stated in the rules.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by kirtar

True, although there's still nothing against say, making the top of your robot such that a ball will bounce off of it in a given direction (i.e. angle the top of your robot). This is not an active mechanism, so we don't have a problem there (It's not even really a mechanism). It is in fact a method to avoid carrying balls as it will cause them to roll or (more likely) bounce off.

That is true, and I expect a lot of robots to incorporate this kind of thing into their designs. Without direction, it seems having a ball consistently land in a place close enough to a robot that it would not need to move in order to score would be impossible.

The "metal on carpet" was referring to locking into the carpet.

[kirtar]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

That is true, and I expect a lot of robots to incorporate this kind of thing into their designs. Without direction, it seems having a ball consistently land in a place close enough to a robot that it would not need to move in order to score would be impossible.

The "metal on carpet" was referring to locking into the carpet.

I am aware of what "metal on carpet" was referring to (as an example 71 used filecards one year IIRC). I meant was that its illegality is not able to be argued against because it is specifically stated in the rules.

[kjolana1124]

Originally Posted by RMiller

I wouldn't be too worried about opponents strategies during autonomous. I would more worry about being able to cooperate with your alliance partners.

Right, but if you notice a team always puts the balls in a certain way in auto and gets them from point A to point B in a repeated amount of time, you may be able to figure out a legal way to counter it.

[kirtar]

Originally Posted by kjolana1124

Right, but if you notice a team always puts the balls in a certain way in auto and gets them from point A to point B in a repeated amount of time, you may be able to figure out a legal way to counter it.

Only if your strategy involved hitting a ball over there or if they partially cross the line (or at least get somewhat close to the line). You can't fully cross the center line in autonomous. You can however, observe where a team tends to end up and make it so that you may be in an advantageous position after autonomous (excluding the above statements).