to all the wedgebots... (and the wannabes)

[archiver]

Posted by Anton Abaya at 03/10/2001 4:05 AM EST


Coach on team #419, Rambots, from UMass Boston / BC High and If only we had free donuts....



your robot has to be the proper height to fit under that bridge. in one match at UTC, one of our alliance partners said they could wedge but apparently were too tall when they did it (when it should have been us). 12" (i measured em) was too high. heck, they didnt even know the proper height when i asked em... hehe. twas funny.

the ramp bots out there like 69 and perhaps wildstang (havent seen them) have a height of 11 1/8" where the lip of the bridge sits directly on top off.

the problem with this is you can never really tell if the bridge is balanced or not as soon as you leave the bridge. or so i've heard. i do know 69 simply rotates their bot 180 degrees and wedges nicely to aid balancing robots find the balanced position, before they slide out. so it solves the problem. (but then again they have a feature of allowing bots to drive over them off the balanced bridge...a cool feature!!)

the BEST height to be a wedge bot cannot be over 11 1/8". If you are over, your bot cannot prevent the see saw effect and might even get stuck under the bridge with all the weight (saw it happen at UTC too many times). so dont do it if you just think you can do it but did not actually think about the measurements....

so for all of you designing or adding this.... keep this in mind ok? it'll help all of us.

moving on to an advertisment....i would like to advertise that the rambot has never once failed to wedge itself at a perfect height designed to wedge perfectly. we never broke at UTC (cept when the students tinkered with it and didnt tell us .. hehe). If you need a fast wedge, one that can also deliver balls, push goals VERY fast, limbos under the bar, looks cool and has a trophy backing its sexy shiny metalic parts, the rambot is the way to go ... reputation and consistency....aye aye!

arooooooooooooooooo

good luck all....

-anton

ps. i love team 69. (tell me u love me chris)