Long vs. Wide Drivebase

[ProgramLuke]

Is your team going with a wide or a long drivebase?

Long
Pros:
Not Tippy
Cons
Longer base takes up more room on bridge

Wide
Pros:
Takes up less room on bridge

Cons:
Tippy

Anything else?

tippy tippy tippy. If you're going over the bump, or even over the bridge, you almost always have a large chance of tipping.

[Mr. Lim]

Largest bumper gap for a ball intake?

[Mk.32]

Originally Posted by Mr. Lim

Largest bumper gap for a ball intake?

well you can only pick up 3 balls at most....

[BrendanB]

If you want to be picked for elims then go wide. No long robot will get on that bridge with two other robots and balance.

Three wides will fit with 11inches of overhang. If one of those is long you are never balancing.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

If you want to be picked for elims then go wide.

What if you want to be one of the picking teams in elims? There might be some other considerations too....

[bearbot]

you could have bots one wide then long then another wide and to balance it out you shift the long bot

[Ninja_Bait]

I vote square bot. My team disagrees but I like it.

Actually, what I really want is a bot that's tiny but still shoots. That would make me happy on the inside.

[Djur]

Use holonomic or mecanum, you'll have both.

[Natatatalies]

Originally Posted by Djur

Use holonomic or mecanum, you'll have both.

But imagine trying to go up the bridge with mechanums. Near the end of a game, battery voltages usually prevent strafing form being all that great. I know from experience that at the end of a match our strafing capabilities would just be reduced to terrible sideways turning capabilities.

If it was hard to strafe on level ground with mechanums during end game last year, imagine strafing up a 17 degree incline with an EXTREMELY low coefficient of friction.

[RyanCahoon]

Originally Posted by BrendanB

If you want to be picked for elims then go wide. No long robot will get on that bridge with two other robots and balance.

Three wides will fit with 11inches of overhang. If one of those is long you are never balancing.

What if the long-bot turns 90* after it's on the bridge?

[Djur]

Originally Posted by RyanCahoon

What if the long-bot turns 90* after it's on the bridge?

It'll have to be perfectly balanced, and turning with 2 other robots on the bridge will be hard if not impossible.

[Tom I]

The transverse (wide) bot does have its advantages. For one, you have a greater pick up area. Even though you can only carry 3 balls, it'll still be easier if you don't have to worry about being perfectly aligned, you can just run over the balls and grab them. Also, there is a greater chance for tipping, but if you keep a LOW center of gravity, you'll be fine. My team had a transverse bot in 06 and we had no problems, and that was with a giant ramp that you had to climb at the end. It shouldn't be a problem. But hey, it's up to team decisions, you should have your chassis fit the rest of your robot's functionality.

[GBilletdeaux930]

Originally Posted by Djur

It'll have to be perfectly balanced, and turning with 2 other robots on the bridge will be hard if not impossible.

I think you are overestimating how tippy the bridge is. You can be pretty offset and the bridge will still stay "balanced"

http://youtu.be/-AMaqqmoLgQ?t=1m27s

[Sean Raia]

Originally Posted by GBilletdeaux930

I think you are overestimating how tippy the bridge is. You can be pretty offset and the bridge will still stay "balanced"

http://youtu.be/-AMaqqmoLgQ?t=1m27s

Everyone seems to be overestimating this. I predict it will be harder to get two robots on one bridge than it will be to balance the bridge when they are on it.