Kicker's

[drtysteve384]

Im seeing all these great kickers and other ideas on how to move the ball, but im having problems with our kicker, We cant seem to find a balance between driving over the bump and being able to kick a ball over at least one bump. So i was wondering do all these great kickers go through the tunnel or do they frive over the Bump?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by drtysteve384

Im seeing all these great kickers and other ideas on how to move the ball, but im having problems with our kicker, We cant seem to find a balance between driving over the bump and being able to kick a ball over at least one bump. So i was wondering do all these great kickers go through the tunnel or do they frive over the Bump?

The better kickers will be able to fire over the bumps and through the tunnel (Ours will do both).

The best will have a positive ball control system of some sort to ensure that the ball is where they want it before kicking.

[John G]

Supringly, our kicker is just a 13 inch long piece of 80/20 connected to a shaft which is driven with a cim, and a thoughbox. It works well. We have about 90 degrees of motion, and can kick over the bump ( over two if you bounce it) and can go under the tunnel. We have some roller, but with improvements I think we could kicker farther. If you need any help, I'll try to help.

[drtysteve384]

But can your robot drive over a bumb at all, cause our #1 priority was to get over the bumb, we figured some one could just block a tunnel and then a robot would be useless

[ubermeister]

Our robot can go under the tunnel, over the bump without scraping its belly, and can kick a ball 2 zones (or very gently, if we want.) The only thing we gave up was being able to drag a ball over the bump.

We accomplished this by making the kicker fully contained in the vertical plane passing through the front wheels. This way, it rises with the front wheels and easily clears the bump. In it's loaded configuration, it presses against the top of the robot, about 13 inches off the ground, still clearing the bump.

If you have to make a choice, I would go with kicking the ball over a bump. Scrimmages have shown traversing the bump to be a very rare occurrence, and you can still play the game well if you can advance the ball. It is difficult to play the game well if you cannot advance the ball.

[PAR_WIG1350]

On the bench, operated with manual switches, our kicker seemed to kick over one bump, maybe bouncing over a second. But today, during the first software controlled kick, it seemed weak, probably just bad luck though. At least it worked.

[BradMello]

Originally Posted by drtysteve384

our #1 priority was to get over the bumb, we figured some one could just block a tunnel and then a robot would be useless

Why even leave the middle zone?

[Mahekp15]

as john G. said our robot can kick, go under the tunnel, and go over bumps !

[drtysteve384]

Originally Posted by BradMello

Why even leave the middle zone?

to defend