pic: Team 148 - Robowranglers 2010 - Armadillo

[Jacob Paikoff]

Thats too bad, I really liked your arm.

And thats leads me to a question I have, how much does your drivetrain weight?

Robot looks great by the way, maybe we'll be in same division

[Chris is me]

If you're not using your arm, can I borrow it?

Kudos to 148217 for making a gutsy move that will apparently pay off for them.

[sgreco]

Originally Posted by JVN

I know some people will question our decision to give up the hanging. I see it as a "no-brainer". When the decision was made, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders.

That is a very interesting trade-off. I like it...I may not agree with the tradeoff, but this is a perfect example of how tradeoffs need to be made, and how design is an iterative process. Every team makes different trade-offs. I really appreciate you posting this and letting us know, it's cool to see how other team's make design decisions.

On the other side, my team's decsion regarding this topic was quite the antithesis. We figured teams wouldn't be switching zones with much frequency, and it would be worth putting more weight into our lift and kicker and just take an extra second or so to get over the bump. This is the great thing about FIRST: seeing how other team's decsions differed from your own, and seeing how the trade-offs made early on (and later on) affect performance, then learning from the decisons made.

I hope this works for you, I can't wait to see it in action! 148 and 217 are the quintessential examples of teams to look up to and strive to emulate, thanks for the inspiration you have provided to us all!

[robodude03]

Originally Posted by JVN

I know some people will question our decision to give up the hanging. I see it as a "no-brainer". When the decision was made, it was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders.

The Thunderchickens went through a similar analysis and made the same decision. Neither robot will be hanging for 2 points this year.

So thank you for all the compliments on our hanging, but you won't ever see Armadillo or Mia do that in competition. Instead you'll see a new-and-improved version of the drivetrain, on a lean, mean, soccer-ball scoring machine.

-John

We made that exact same decision in the final week of build. I have to say that I feel much better knowing that other teams felt the same way about hanging, particularly 148 and 217.

this is a perfect example of how tradeoffs need to be made, and how design is an iterative process. Every team makes different trade-offs.

It was a difficult decision for us to make and we thought long and hard about the trade-off. In the end mentors and students came to a decision that this was the best move for us to make. Strengthen our drive train, lower the CG, and develop a new way to play this game.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by robodude03

We made that exact same decision in the final week of build. I have to say that I feel much better knowing that other teams felt the same way about hanging, particularly 148 and 217.

I guess I don't feel their feelings about hanging are at all universal. That's not what I took away from the post, at least. Not "all robots would be sufficiently better with hanging resources moved elsewhere", but "the 148 and 217 robots work >=2 points better without a hanger" (and evidently 399 is the same).

Then again, I could be rationalizing due to the costs sunk into my own team's hanger...

[robodude03]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I guess I don't feel their feelings about hanging are at all universal. That's not what I took away from the post, at least. Not "all robots would be sufficiently better with hanging resources moved elsewhere", but "the 148 and 217 robots work >=2 points better without a hanger" (and evidently 399 is the same).

Then again, I could be rationalizing due to the costs sunk into my own team's hanger...

Don't get me wrong, I am definitely not discrediting other teams' decision to hang. As a team we felt that we wanted to focus on making our other systems stronger and as a result we scrapped our hanging ability. As was mentioned, it was a trade-off that we felt we had to make, in part to lower our CG.

[R.C.]

John,

We ended up making the same decision, we felt that weight should be put elsewhere. So we improved our roller considerably and our kicker.

Can't wait to see MIA and Armadillo in action.

-RC