Team Update #1

[nitneylion452]

I don't see an issue here. I see that the hostbot cannot contribute to the vertical motion of the minibot. Fine, no problem. I'm seeing that you can't have stored energy in a spring, everything must use the motors. Again, no problem.

I'm not going to reveal why I don't see the problem yet. I want all of you to try and see what I am saying here. Try and calm down, step back from your infinite rage and look at this like an engineer would. You found a loophole that said you could launch the minibot from the hostbot, I see another loophole yet to be closed, if it ever will be.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by nitneylion452

I don't see an issue here. I see that the hostbot cannot contribute to the vertical motion of the minibot. Fine, no problem. I'm seeing that you can't have stored energy in a spring, everything must use the motors. Again, no problem.

I'm not going to reveal why I don't see the problem yet. I want all of you to try and see what I am saying here. Try and calm down, step back from your infinite rage and look at this like an engineer would. You found a loophole that said you could launch the minibot from the hostbot, I see another loophole yet to be closed, if it ever will be.

<G19>After DEPLOYMENT, MINIBOTS must remain completely autonomous and move up the POST solely through electric energy provided after DEPLOYMENT by the permitted, unaltered battery and converted to mechanical energy by the permitted unaltered motors (and associated, appropriate circuitry).

The physics here are pretty straightforward. There's absolutely no stored energy allowed, besides the battery. You can only start using the energy in the battery after DEPLOYMENT. The only way of converting this to mechanical energy is through the provided motors, which have a peak power output of 8.4W. So it works out pretty simply:

Work = Force x Distance = (Mass x g) x Distance
Power = Work / Time
Time = (Mass x g x Distance) / Power

So, you want to minimize Time by fiddling with things on the right hand side:
g - acceleration due to gravity. Let's all please assume this is constant.
Distance - nearly constant. Serious teams will deploy as high as possible.
Power - Max available is ~16.8W. Make your minibot as efficient as possible, with little friction and appropriate gearing.

Mass is the only variable teams have any significant control over. There's two approaches here:
1. Build a stripped down "dragster" with 2 motors, 1 battery, (maybe) 1 controller, and the minimum frame, gearing, and wheels to make it all work. There's an obvious minimum here of 1 battery, 2 motors, and some wiring.
2. Leave the motor, batteries, and controller on the ground and send up something lighter to hit the trigger for you. This has the potential to be rather faster than option 1, what with the huge weight reduction. But this is only possible if minibots are allowed to expand outside the starting 12"x12"x12" box. Given the massive restrictions just implemented on minibots, do you really think the GDC is going to leave that avenue open?

As people have been saying, it's just about down to a pure physics problem at this point. He who builds lightest and best wins. Successful minibots will have optimal gearing, 2 wheels, and as little framing as possible.