Defense: Pushing and Blocking

[akshar]

with a 2gear transmission, we proved today that we can be a very good defensive bot..

[Richsgt]

Defense, as it turned out to be today, is a huge part of the game. One of the robots with no true offensive capabilities made it to a top seed at the scrimmage, whereas ours with a full drive system powered right was able to knock most shooters out of the way, pushing them sideways across the field, nullifying their abilities. As time progresses defense will probably become lesa of focus as offensive strategy changes to counteract, eg less stationary systems that were shown today

[d.courtney]

yes ramming is a problem, and we were bullies so to speak last year on the feild, for a little while at least an we are sorry to any team which we caused any extra work. we quickly found ways to be defensive with no team or ref finding any fault in us... we went without penalties in our second compatition as a cause of this.... the biggest thing to remember is that ramming is bad, so since we had the power last year we would go up to a team at a reasonable speed then full power once touching them... this caused no damage in robots and no penalties, also remember 2-3 seconds as a rule of thumb for pinning... just some tips

[Jonathan Norris]

The difference this year is the FIRST has really out-lawed defensive measures, such as wedges, making it much simpler to play defense. Every robot will be a box this year, as long as your CG isn't too bad defense can be played by anyone. I have seen many teams who have decided to use 2 cim motors for their shooter, but a lot are also using the 2-speed AM shifter, which on low gear will provide the same amount of torque (roughly) as a kit gearbox with 2 cim in the AM shifter (considering proper ratios). We are using the AM shifter, and will have a lot more pushing power than last year if we keep 4 CIM on the bottom. but a low CG robot will be much better at defense than a high CG robot with high torque.

[demps45]

Originally Posted by Jonathan Norris

The difference this year is the FIRST has really out-lawed defensive measures, such as wedges, making it much simpler to play defense. Every robot will be a box this year, as long as your CG isn't too bad defense can be played by anyone. I have seen many teams who have decided to use 2 cim motors for their shooter, but a lot are also using the 2-speed AM shifter, which on low gear will provide the same amount of torque (roughly) as a kit gearbox with 2 cim in the AM shifter (considering proper ratios). We are using the AM shifter, and will have a lot more pushing power than last year if we keep 4 CIM on the bottom. but a low CG robot will be much better at defense than a high CG robot with high torque.

Using 4 CIM motors will give you plenty of power to push others, but when faced with another robot with equal power, it comes down to whoever has the best traction. After all, more power does not help without more traction to go with it. However, it will not take much pushing to knock another robot "off target".

[demps45]

We have found over the years that a robot that maneuvers well usually has an advantage over a slower more powerful one. There will always be some pushing and other defensive stratigies, but a good offense will prevail over a defensive only robot. Our robot this year should be very good offensively and still be able to play defense, after all, just simple blocking will be effective this year.

[Josh Murphy]

i agree with you it all really depends on the strategies that comes about so some that play offense might end up playing defense and some that want to play defense might play offense so the machine has to be versitile

[Henry_Mareck]

We will be able to block low shooters, but out emphasis will be on pushing

[Cody Carey]

We'll be able to push pretty much anybody... I hope and we SHOULD have a functional launcher by ship, So We didn't have to sacrifice anything. At least I don't think we did

[TEAM456MS]

We will be able to push anybody in our way.

[bobotics319]

Bob can do pretty much anything... we have a strong frame and a strong offense....so pretty much bob is the man!!

[DjAlamose]

By the results of the poll thus far it seems as though there are allot of teams out there that are unstoppable. Well I guess we will just have to wait and see how many of these robots can actually live up to their names. Torque is nothing without traction. I just don't see the necessity of being uber defensive. My belief is that offense wins championships, defense wins matches. A defensive robot can hound a robot all it wants, but if that robot can score one point than that is all that is needed to win.

[Jeremiah H]

We chose to sacrifice a ball shooter for a good, strong drive train.

On the pushing more than one bot at once, I reckon that if they (being the said bots to be pushed) had omni wheel drives, then we could push all of them without any problem. The bots with drive trains similar to ours are going to be a little more difficult.

On the blocking, our bot isn't going to be tall enough to stop a shot from a robot with a five-foot tall shooter, but they might have problems getting off an accurate shot while they are being shoved around the field.

That said, I think that we are going to live up to our traditional reputation of being "defensive specialists" Anyone remember last year's model with the wheelie bars that <accidently, sort of> served as wedges? (we didn't design them for that, I promise.)

[artdutra04]

How can a majority of the teams have a transmission with above-average pushing power?

It's like the statistic that says a majority of drivers [for cars and trucks] think that they are above-average drivers.

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by artdutra04

How can a majority of the teams have a transmission with above-average pushing power?

It's like the statistic that says a majority of drivers [for cars and trucks] think that they are above-average drivers.

well what is considered "average pushing power"? i think a lot of teams (including mine) overestimate the amount of actual power their drivetrain has, and that is responsible for the statistic