How feasable would it be to launch/shoot the cones? I’ve only thought about it and haven’t been able to test anything yet, but what would be the limits to it and how would it be done? I’ve thought about a shooter similar to Ultimate Ascent and keep the cone lengthwise. I feel it would pretty dramatically reduce cycle times if you can build one which is reliable as aopposed to an arm where there are lots of considerations in terms of center of mass and cantilever systems.
What are your thoughts?
Something something axisymmetric stable axis of spin
try spinning it when you throw it. The orientation matters, but we found the results interesting.
Spinning in which orientation? I feel that doing it like a bottle flip could cause some inconsistency, but if you were to spin it around the vertical axis that could help with stability and act as a gyro of sorts.
I tossed them by hand a little because I was curious. It’s not really something on 4272 radar, but it was slightly easier that I assumed it would be. Seems like the weight distribution of the cones make them “hook” on to the bar sorta easy. I wouldn’t be shocked if I saw a couple teams pull it off, but I don’t think it’s super reliable and it wouldn’t be simple for many teams.
I think shooting cubes is actually pretty viable based on some of the testing by 3847. I think you will see some really strong robots that ignore cones entirely and only focus on shooting cubes.
If you spin the cone about its long axis, then it cannot spin in any other direction, and the opening will stay in the same place as it flies–no matter what orientation you throw it at.
This is because of its moments of inertia–the cone is axisymmetric, meaning two directions’ moments of inertia are equal and larger than the third, so the angle is stable.
Shooting with the cubes is definitely viable, we’re just experimenting with adapting a shooter to both game pieces as that could make the robot pretty low depending on execution. Nothing’s been figured out yet, I just wanted to guage our options.
If you were to do something like that, then, how would it intereact with the air? I don’t know if the weird shape would help or hurt in that regard.
I reccomend playing with the cone–throwing it, compressing it, doing who-knows-what–to deterimine how it will react to various things.
However, the principle for why it behaves as I’ve described is the same reason an American football or Frisbee disc don’t change their orientation while thrown. Air resistance imparts at most a small wobble.
In my opinion, shooting cones seems much more reliable than cubes. It’s hard to trust the cube by how much it bounces around but it is definitely possible. The cone idea does spark my interest though.