A team with limited resources: What two things should they focus on doing well...

to completment the top-performing teams?

Switch and exchange. Read the instructions for the kitbot and build that. Don’t try to get fancy. Don’t be clever.

Drive train, drive train, drive train - be able to go over the line in autonomous and get around the field reliably. After that pick either (since you said only two things) putting cubes in the exchange or on the switch.

Good luck!

  1. Drivetrain: Build it to be robust and get a lot of practice with it. Drive long (not wide) and make it so you have a lot of ground clearance (6 inch wheels or bigger). Also put 6 cims on it and gear it for like 8-10 ft/s

  2. Intake: design an effective intake that can be lifted and reversed to score cubes in the Switch and Vault

Drive train and drive practice. If you get a mechanism on there add that to drive practice. In the world of cheese cake drive practice is great!

Regardless of what you do, do it well and consistently. Don’t be overambitious if you can’t maintain that functionality for the entire event. If they see you were dead on the field for a match, you may have landed on a do not pick list.

Thank you all. It help give clarity of direction.

Exchange. exchange exchange!

Agreed. Our plan is to work the Scale and then deploy ramps for climbing - so we need Levitate. Thus, we need someone working the Exchange to get that for us.

Move cubes FAST from the Portal to the Switch, and from the floor to the Exchange. That means you have to be able get them quickly, and keep control of them, and deliver them quickly, without wasting time having to get in just the right position, etc.

Okay. This is great information. Thank you.

  1. What would be the preferred maximun frame configuration to fit on the platform you are envisioning.

  2. Since not every match will probably have a top-tiered unfolding platform, would it be prudent to try for a climbing mechanism as the third thing to do AFTER “mastering” the first two?

:slight_smile:

Be small and be fast.

Portal, portal, portal!

With the exchange, you get 9*5 pts (45 pts) for cubes, 30 pts for levitate, 20 pts for force, ~20 pts for boost, or 115 points max. The 1/3 climb for RP points is a perk too.

But the portal is 1pt/s for the 135 s duration. And winning is 2 RPs, so I think you should go for points in this situation, and 135>115.

The portal area also gives you the opportunity to clean up any stray opponent cubes (with ground pickup) but the portal to switch mechanism should be simpler to design if not doing a ground pickup.

Either way, you can try to climb for endgame. I think that would increase your odds of being on an alliance. A portal only robot with a consistent climber will be on an alliance IMO (unless rampbot take over).

  1. Drive! Not just the ability to get somewhere eventually, but build a drivetrain early and get plenty of drive practice.
  2. Depends on your resources, but most likely one of:
  • defense (prevent the opposing alliance from going places and doing things)

  • herd cubes (push cubes into the exchange, and move them to support your alliance partners/deny the opposing alliance)

  • place cubes on the switch

Whichever you choose, get plenty of practice doing it!

Note that simply leaving a gap in your front (or rear) bumpers that is wide enough to herd a single cube will likely make the second one easier.

If you are prioritizing, I would concentrate on being able to move cubes FAST, over climbing. That means, all that time that would be spent trying to make a climbing mechanism that has not very good odds of working, would be better spent iterating your cube handling stuff, and practicing driving with it.

But that’s just because I’ve watched lots of low resource teams over the years try to do difficult stuff, while not spending that time working on doing the easy stuff well.

Now, this is only if you want to win matches. If you want to try the difficult stuff because it’s a great challenge, then go for it! either way, it’s fun.

For any team with low resources or a rookie this is my advice… **be unique.
**
What this allows is for you to add to a winning alliance something unique.

Ways I would look at that goal:

What stops the top design powerhouse from achieving their cycles? Think about the best robot one could possibly make and how could YOU stop or slow them? What is THEIR game…stop or slow it down.

What ensures a triple climb? What can YOU do to improve the odds your alliance in eliminations earns a triple climb (Three physical, or two levitate… or perhaps a ramp or other)…Think about the one rung, are you taking it all up to climb well than that’s not much use in eliminations the other bots can likely climb as well , a compact climbing mechanism mat be better one that uses the side supports to allow two physical climbs etc.

Auto: Can YOU handle a random field with programming? Can you show that you can move and place a powercube on a nearby or cross field platform that is low or tall in 15 seconds? Can you at bare minimum drive straight.

If you do any one of these things you start entering the unique club, unique are often great second picks once the top of the field gets picked or they are unique enough they are picking.

The ultimate goal is to help… teams select those that “they think” will help them , those that are a liability usually do not get selected. This changes based on each captain and what they need help with. One bot can win it all but its difficult when faced with better competition in eliminations…so all alliances will need some help

Most of all be practice with your bot, make sure its solid wont break so harden it the connections everything. Bring spare parts to fix it. Be cool when on gualification alliances get to know the top teams, offer to show them something in game. Always do what you say during the game…be a good listener.

Drive team interaction is key, pit interaction is key, gameplay interaction is key, scouting interaction is key…you are always on after the competition starts . Make sure all your team knows this. Make a nice flyer on your bot to hand out.

I think it would be awesome if a team built a robot like 148’s offseason robot Bolt that focused on the switch and the exchange , was super fast, and light… Lots of teams are looking at ramps or lifting other robots and its alot easier to lift a 61 pound robot than a 154 pound.

Are there any nearby teams you can collaborate with?

If I am a quality bot I have no need for a switch bot, I’ll do it in auto. I’m looking for someone to handle the exchange so I don’t have to worry about it. If you build a small bot that can smash the exchange I’m picking you 100%

The Switch isn’t something you can just handle in auto and forget about. It’ll be a continuous battle to retain two out of three Scale/Switches and will likely take an entire alliance effort. I wouldn’t want to handicap my Playoff Alliance by selecting a third robot that doesn’t have a highly effective Switch mechanism. In most cases I think it can be assumed that a team with a reliable Switch mechanism can also do the exchange. If I’m optimizing for only one of those things it’ll be the Switch. My logic is that you know you’ll need somebody to run Switch cycles in the Playoffs, but being that the Power Ups are such a new game dynamic in FRC, I’m not fully convinced you’ll see most playoff alliances automatically fill their Vault.