pic: Four Speed Three CIM Gearbox

[EricH]

Originally Posted by The other Gabe

Why did they do that? was it just like, one of the kids said in a meeting, as a joke, "you know what would be cool?" and everyone just kinda went along with it.

Nope. 2007 was PHYSICAL. Not only was there ramp climbing (up all random sizes and slopes of ramp), but there were 5 other robots on the field, all trying to score or block scoring in the same general area. This "area", the Rack, was a structure that could be slid and spun around, took up a fairly large chunk of real estate in the center of an otherwise flat field...

... and needed some degree of precision to place scoring objects (inner tubes) onto its scoring pegs.

All I'll say as far as it being physical is: Aerial Assist was rough. Now extend and beef up the appendages another couple of feet or so. And "meet in the middle" autonomously...at speed...or under driver control...while trying to score...or block scoring...


118 had a pretty decent swerve the previous year, but for this one they added a pair of F-P motors to a 4-CIM, ran all the wheels off the same gearbox and the same turning motor, and had a turret on top to allow for scoring in any orientation they felt like being in.

Basically, lots of push and lots of maneuverability were judged "pretty important" that year. (Though... IIRC, Einstein was a bunch of 6WD skid-steers that year, with maybe a couple of non-tank drives around.)