My team is really conflicted on what we want to do. Most people are set on going to level 2 hatches at the least and trying to climb the HAB’s.
However my mentor is really set on ramp bots and I can’t see the practicality of it. I know my last seasons had specific “climbing” aspects and I’ve seen robots that could support other robots as they climb and I’ve seen numerous times when they’ve broken, gotten entangled or just made a mess for the alliance.
I want to know what the best outcome of the ability of a ramp bot this year could be. ie what can it do when it’s not being a ramp. And what material would we use for the ramp?
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if you set your sights on something early, you have time to make sure it works. We are looking at the ramp bot idea. Just keep prototyping and researching. Make it work for you, don’t work for it. Practice. It will be clear soon whether or not its a good idea for your team.
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I’m with you…having played games where there were rampbots, it usually doesn’t end well. I’m going to suggest to our team that we work on making a robot that can lift itself to level 3. That way, if it works, it will get used every match.
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The highest reasonable point value you could achieve with a ramp/climb bot is 24 (1 Level Three, 2 Level Two) or 21 (1 Level Three, 1 Level Two, 1 Level One), which can match 12 hatches and get you a ranking point. If you could figure out how to do this, it would be very beneficial to your alliance and would put you in a good place to be picked by alliances, as not many teams will be able to make it to Level Three. The only downside would be that you are totally dependent on your alliance for the other points.
I imagine it like the PowerUp robots who could only lift others robots and do exchange. Although they couldn’t really score by themselves, they were very valuable in the alliance selections because they could complete Face The Boss.
Ultimately, you have to weigh the extreme specialization and dependency against the ability to score 24 points and guarantee a ranking point. Although I personally wouldn’t choose it, it has worked very well for other teams.
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Take a look back at some matches from 2007, Rack 'N Roll. There were quite a few ramp bots that year, and a fair amount of success with them. A few differences though. There was no platform you were ramping to - the ramp was to get your alliance member on top of you. There was no platform you would have to sit on, just a carpeted area. And the height requirement was smaller, only 12" instead of 19" (lvl 1to lvl 3, it’s further if you go from the carpet to level 3 with your ramp).
So, some similarities and some differences. It really comes down to mechanism packaging and weight allowance. Depending on packaging and weight, you can definitely have both a ramp and a game piece mechanism. But that’s the design challenge you would need to look at!
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Personally I think most rookie teams this year will be doing ramps and playing defense
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My team is attempting to do a ramp bot as well, we think it will help in making us a valuable robot to be picked, as we’ve usually lacked any alluring features in the past. I don’t think it will be too difficult to pull off, although you may have to sacrifice operating the high hatches of the rocket. There should be enough space at the high end of the ramp to have some mechanisms there, and keep in mind that the ramp doesn’t have to be solid al the way across. You could have something going down the middle. As for materials, I would try some thick plastics. There are some pretty light and strong ones out there. A ramp is just a ramp, I don’t think they will provide as many of the risks that the climbing bots did last year since there don’t have to be as many moving parts.
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For teams doing ramp bots, the expansion restrictions this year are very important to consider early on. With only 30" past your frame perimeter allowed for expansion, you’ll need to be very careful about the geometry of your ramps, both to make them legal and to make it easy for your partners to drive onto them.
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Correct me if I’m wrong but,
30” extension rule applies to all sides effectively allowing you to extend 60” combine that with the frame perimeter length already (unlike years where there were size configurations ) you can make a long bot with two ramps. Just a thought
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I believe this is accurate. The way I have been thinking about it is if you take a tape measure and meaure 30" out perpendicular from your robot, that’s the zone you have to stay in. If your ramp doesn’t stick out of that zone then you are good to go.
It’s a little confusing because the drawing in the manual isn’t too scale.
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Pure ramp bots were a monumental failure last year. Maybe a lift bot would be more viable.
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Triple Level 3 climb robots will look a lot more like double lift bots from last year than ramp bots…
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Seems to me that ramp bots would be easier this year given that you only have to get a robot from one height to another rather than supporting them at the top too. Although I definitely agree that ramps are not an easy mechanism to pull off well. Any method that relies on another team is in my opinion less reliable because every bot is different so the endgame will be different every time.
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Wow the support is great!
Triple (or even double) Level 3 Ramp bots will be pretty impossible without holding the robots in the air. The 4 foot square isn’t enough to support multiple bots, so hoisting them akin to what many teams did with climb forks would be the most point efficient.
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With an absolute maximum clearance of 2.5" from the bumper rules, I suspect many robots will struggle to make it up ramps to level 3. It certainly requires the robot ramp to interface with the ramp to level 1.