This is definitely allowed.
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I might be wrong about this, but I feel like 2 robots climbing on the Coat Hanger is going to be much easier than 2018. I feel like we are all way over-complicating the difficulty of getting two robots to climb and balance reliably. This reminds me of the situation in 2018, at 610 we spent the time adding a buddy bar for others to climb on, but never ended up using it at the Detroit Champs because so many teams had just switched to rope climbs by then…
Here is how I see double climbing happening this year:
- Robot #1 goes to line up at the end of one side of the coat hanger, and only grabs the bar slightly. Robot stays on the ground, doesn’t raise the other end by more than a couple inches.
- Robot #2 comes and lines up at the opposite end of the coat hanger, and both robots only pull up a couple of inches. By not pulling up too far any un-balance or rocking in the coat hanger will be minimal.
- If the bar isn’t balanced, Robot #2(or #1) releases and re-positions, if Robot #1 hasn’t pulled up too far the bar shouldn’t rock too far.
I feel that elimination alliances will be able to sort out this robot coordination by week 1, and by later weeks balanced hangs will be very common even in qualifications.
I see no need for an active leveling mechanism.
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To add, I think a lot of mid-high to high tier teams are going to have climbers that are able to change CG. That way lining up isn’t as hard.
I think you’re vastly underestimating how long it will take unfamiliar teams to coordinate an endgame maneuver together. Teams are always, always, always running out of time to do what everyone claims “only takes 5 seconds” when they’re asked in the pre-match drive team meeting. If your plan involves one robot lining up, the second robot lining up, both trying to climb, descending back to the ground, one moving along the bar (likely perpendicular to the normal direction of travel for many teams), and both climbing again, it will not happen in Week 1 outside of exceptional alliances. It will still be rare at any point during the season.
Basically, either the two teams will guess right and get the balance on the first try, or at least one will have to have some sort of active balancing aid. Otherwise, they’ll just end up with a double hang and no balance. I’m not saying no one will get the balance, but I don’t see everything you’ve laid out happening in under 30 seconds very often.
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yea don’t get me wrong it’s going to take a lot of learning from drive teams over the season to get it right. I was probably too ambitious in my predictions, but at the higher levels of play later in the season I think teams will just figure out how to play together and pull off balanced climbs in 15-20 seconds.
This biggest factor that could derail climbs is having a very unbalanced climber, make sure your climber is over your centre of gravity and balancing will be much easier.
3 robots on the bar is totally possible and might be worth it for some of the top teams, but I would recommend that most teams build a tall bot with a very simple single-stage climber and focus on: Cycling Optimization to see success this year.
A center climb helps balance the SWITCH. The math is easy to do to determine where the other 2 need to climb to be balanced, and the SWITCH is surprising forgiving to placement errors, as long as the ROBOTS are relatively the same weight.
Top heavy tall ROBOTs are going to be unhappy with the dealing with the angled (to normal direction of travel) BOUNDARIES in the SHIELD GENERATOR.
I’m not sure if this was mentioned above - I confess I didn’t thoroughly ready through.
Every team that plans on climbing at the end should know the full weight of their robot with bumpers and battery to help coordinate positions on the coat hanger at the end. Of course they couldn’t make it easy by having a nice side view of the coat hangers from the drivers stations.
Added bonus, automatic metal chip and field debris removal from the electronics. 
It seems like it would be easier to have the elevator mechanism lower through the belly-pan of the robot, and store the forks underneath the robot. No flipping required. But, I am also of the opinion that buddy climbs will not be as necessary this year.
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THAT
that is a unique approach. I love it and hope someone does it. When 125 and 1323 did 90 degree rotations in 2018 that was pretty amazing. This would get the crowd on their feet.
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Be careful to not extend into the other alliance’s zone.
I actually had a crazy thought on this. Some of you may have seen it on another thread, but essentially it is a robot that can climb, carry, and maybe have a basic intake/outake arm. The principle is that it has a flat top with the exception of its climber on the very front, and climbs the middle of the hanging bars. The robot has ramps that extend 12 inches out and raise once 2 robots get on, then the robot raises a few inches up and locks. I know it’s a very outlandish idea, but thats what makes it interesting. This "Parking Lot Robot™"may not be the most reasonable, but from a consistency standpoint, it could get you to worlds with 90 points average a match. Not expecting to see anyone do this though.
I’m working with a rookie team this year. Our climb might just be a static swing hook at 68 inches. The active climber will do all the leveling adjustments and the heavy lifting. We’ll just be a static weight holding the bar steady until they are ready to finish the climb. i consider this the simplest of buddy climbs.
I love this idea. It’s too crazy to spend too much time thinking about, but if someone does attempt it, they’ll have to be careful about touching the upper portion of the Generator Switch, which is not permitted.
I am wondering how a static hook at 44.5 inches would work. Figure 3-9 om the game manual indicates that the lowest position for the switch would be 4ft 2 1/4 in. (50.25 inches). Are you talking about having a hook rotate upwards and the pivot be at 44.5 inches?
Can you quote that rule? If you’re thinking of G26, it doesn’t say touching.
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You’re right, thank you for pointing that out. G26 restricts:
A. Grabbing
B. Grasping
C. Attaching (including the use of hook tape to anchor to the FIELD carpet and excluding use
of the PLAYER STATION hook-and-loop tape, plugging in to the provided power outlet, and
plugging the provided Ethernet cable into the OPERATOR CONSOLE)
D. Deforming
E. Becoming Entangled
F. Damaging
G. Suspending from
to the handle portion of the switch (the Rung bar and a small bit of the support structure). I guess teams can lean against the rest of the Switch structure as long as the interaction doesn’t meet any of the definitions above.
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I think you’re ok to touch the other alliances zone so long as you don’t touch theirs bots or switch.
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This was something we looked at very carefully. It’s going to be critical for some climbers to understand what this rule actually says.