Here is a video of Apple Pi at the Suffield Shakedown.
Team 2067 from Guilford Connecticut.
They have a nice compact robot design that can also pick up off of the floor.
This is their practice bot and the floor pick up needed work.
Nonetheless, if unmolested, they can score four cycles at 12 points each added to 18 in autonomous. Thats 60 points. We’ll see if that can happen as they would be easy to block.
However…
If they get their floor pick up working and it is effective, It will easily get those four if not five cycles.
Since they can sit under their pyramid, you can’t defend that.
It will beat any climbing robot.
I think this is one of the top strategies for this game.
If the drive train can beat out defenders and it rests against the pyramid while shooting (as it did in the video), it will get the 4-5 cycles/match anyway.
Man, what a great strategy. Compact, nimble, accurate, uses wall feed as the primary… If only the robot also attempted a 10 point climb, I could probably compare it to a robot I am close to…
As long as they are touching the pyramid. Even then, a defending robot can be under the pyramid with them as long as the defender isn’t touching the pyramid or their robot and still block their shots if it comes to that.
One advantage that the defending drivers have is that they are on that side of the field so they have a better line of sight.
According to G16, the use of a strategy that uses discs to aid or inhibit climbing is a technical foul (20pts). If the climbing robot is affected by this strategy, that robot’s alliance gets the points for a 30 point climb
G16
TEAMS and/or ROBOTS may not employ strategies that use DISCS to either aid or inhibit a ROBOT CLIMB.
Violation: TECHNICAL FOUL. If the DISC(S) inhibits an opponent’s CLIMB attempt, the opponent ROBOT’S ALLIANCE is awarded points for a successful Level 3 CLIMB.
… So in theory, yes, it is possible to give your opponent’s alliance 50pts by shooting a disc at a climbing robot.
We plan to also add a climber to the final robot (at least 10 point hang, but
possibly a 30 point one)
Yeah, floor pickup on this robot wasn’t that good, so we didn’t bother using it most of the time. But you might have noticed the harvester flopping up and down though; it wasn’t staying up :P. Hopfully the final harvester will be better
The autonomous code is obviously going to be improved, and hopefully we’ll be able to pull off 5 high goals for a 30 point autonomous. The autonomous was kinda buggy at Suffield Shakedown; the first shot was usually weak and the robot had to be rebooted every round in order for autonomous to even run. I couldn’t fix that between matches because deploying new code just wouldn’t work, so we we were stuck with a somewhat buggy autonomous (it’s fixed now)
Try G30. It’s a foul. However, if it’s purposeful or consequential, make that a T-foul for 20. If a climb is affected, 30 for the climb, PLUS whatever CLIMB points the robot earns (Q141).
So, translation: If you brush an opponent contacting their pyramid, the best you can expect is 3 points for them. If it’s obviously intentional (purposeful) or it moves them significantly (consequential), 20 points for them instead. If they are also trying a climb, 30-60 points depending on which level they end up at. (That’s the penalty plus whatever climb points they get.)
Shorter translation: Do you REALLY want to even THINK about defending an opponent who is in contact with their pyramid, or could be at a second’s notice? And if you do, then think a few times.
Please note that this is not necessarily a “use of discs to aid or inhibit a climb” situation, so any G16 penalties will be in addition to any G30 penalties assessed.
Impressive run in that video. Obviously I think they will get a little more harassed racing across the field if they continue to put up frisbee points like that, but it’s definitely hard to defend at either end.
Our (1058) strategy is very similar, except we have a 23" wide intake so we can pick up two side-by-side frisbees. This allows us to start with 2 at the back of the pyramid, pull up, pick up the 2 under the pyramid, pull up, shoot 4, pull up again, pick up the 2 in front of the pyramid, back up to the pyramid, and fire those two. Our shooter is built to be rapid-fire, so if all goes perfectly, we have a 36 point auton.
A double wide intake, that’s pretty cool. I honestly don’t know how we’re going to grab the two under the pyramid with our smaller intake. Unless we just grab one under the pyramid, then grab one in front of the pyramid.