Dumpers?

[dtengineering]

Okay... we really, really need to come up with a better term than "dumpers" for these robots, just to help the game commentators.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with saying "Team xxx is taking a shot!" for a shooter... but we really need a better term for robots that get close before they unload on their opponents.

Jason

[R.C.]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Okay... we really, really need to come up with a better term than "dumpers" for these robots, just to help the game commentators.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with saying "Team xxx is taking a shot!" for a shooter... but we really need a better term for robots that get close before they unload on their opponents.

Jason

I agree with that, but dumping.... It sounds great to me ish?

[ebarker]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

Okay... we really, really need to come up with a better term than "dumpers" for these robots, just to help the game commentators.

I mean, there's nothing wrong with saying "Team xxx is taking a shot!" for a shooter... but we really need a better term for robots that get close before they unload on their opponents.

Jason

It has been an evolutionary process but it looks like our robot is the " Pukebot 9000 "

We will post pictures in a day or so.

[nat2]

we made a hybrid and it can shoot to about 5-6 ft and it can still make bumper on bumper shots with ease. but we haven't made it automated yet,

[Zipding]

We had 2 ideas, one that we liked to call the Dr. Seussmobile and the dumper/shooter hybrid. We chose the shooter/dumper hybrid, but got rid of the shooter part because you can't aim well, there is a chance of landing the ball into an allied trailer and it would be really complicated. Our dumper will mainly be supplying the payload specialist with the moon rocks and it would be able to transfer the empty cells safely because of the bucket
Overall, dumpers may be better because if you miss the opponents trailer, there is no chance of accidentaly hitting your allies and you can supply the payload specialist easily.

[Rex Woodu]

How does shooting make it harder to program than dumping?

[Magnechu]

I agree^^

Our robot sounds very similar, with a holding capacity of about 18 and the ability to power dump all of them within a few seconds.

[Rick Wagner]

It may be that some top alliances will consist of a shooter, a dumper, and an empty cell runner. Opposing alliance robots good at avoiding dumpers may not be able to avoid the shooter, and vice versa. With 100 seconds to run four empty cells, a robot specialized to do that may make the difference for a winning alliance. Expecting three robots to share the empty cell running duty may be asking for too much.

[FRC1672]

Originally Posted by Rick Wagner

It may be that some top alliances will consist of a shooter, a dumper, and an empty cell runner. Opposing alliance robots good at avoiding dumpers may not be able to avoid the shooter, and vice versa. With 100 seconds to run four empty cells, a robot specialized to do that may make the difference for a winning alliance. Expecting three robots to share the empty cell running duty may be asking for too much.

Our robot has the ability to be a dumper but we want strategically to be an empty cell runner. Since the fewest amount of teams are trying or have the provisions on their robot to, we figure we have a semi decent chance of being selected and succeeding in later rounds

[Rick Wagner]

Originally Posted by FRC1672

Our robot has the ability to be a dumper but we want strategically to be an empty cell runner. Since the fewest amount of teams are trying or have the provisions on their robot to, we figure we have a semi decent chance of being selected and succeeding in later rounds

My team decided not to have special empty cell running capability because we want to focus on scoring in trailers, so we will be looking for good empty cell running alliance partners. In a pinch, we can pick up empty cells from the floor and shoot them into an airlock, but we figure unless we absolutely have to do that, our time will be better spent scoring in trailers.

[AlexD744]

Our robot will both carry empty cells and score however, I think we'll be more inclined to score. I guess only the competition will tell what is best.

[sbrumund]

team 2115: We started with a dumper design and abandond it because even when we were bumper to bumper the balls rolling out of the hopper did not move far enough horizontally to consistantly get into the trailer.

I have seen two dumpers so far, one with a power assist to speed the balls out of the hopper. Neither worked well but it is early.

We have found our thrower mechanism has a trajectory consistant enough to put a ball the trailer at a 3-4' range.

Mechanically we are fine but as stated befor the challenge is in the programming to aim the thrower

[Yoel2630]

WE figured that both dumping and shooting would need static trailers( or very slow) and those opportunities would be very small so we might as well dump a whole lot of balls at once even if it's only 75%...
the camera isn't very fast... and we think that with our dumper we can score in motion as well as static.... so all shooters beware of us

[thefro526]

We're using a "Dumper". It's powered though and has a range of < 1 foot. Where Dumpers are going to shine is in the quantity of balls delivered in a short period. If you're a high capacity (We're 21-24 balls) and a high Speed Dumper (We're ~2.5 sec for 21 balls) you should be able to hang with most of the shooters out there.

[boomergeek]

We're doing a shooter. We figured it may be difficult in the later rounds to find an opponent that would graciously hold their trailer still long enough to show how good our imaginary dumper could be .

Getting a good idea about how robots and trailers will actually interact in this game is a difficult feat of extrapolation that makes my brain hurt. Does anyone have any video of scrimmages yet?