This year, during the endgame in a qualification match, would you allow another team to have you drive onto their robot and pick up the both of you to get a double climb?
Asking for a friend
If it’s cleared beforehand while strategizing, why not?
But qual is when it’s something you need to do
If I see the design, like it and see it done in the pit practice, then yea. If its a sloppy build and is not a solid demo, then no. It all comes to quality. I am sure if 254 or citrus has something like that their rep would be trust worthy and I might only need to see the bot and not a demo. Lesser known teams like mine would have to prove it in visual quality and in the pits.
Back in 2007, team 843* built a forklift with the same intent as this. Throughout all their matches, they only found one partner willing to let themselves be lifted by them. It probably had something to do with how rickety the setup looked. However it probably also had a fair amount to do with the thought of putting the life of your robot, into another robots hand. I for one this year, would be extremely hesitant to allow this during a quals match without seeing an extremely well built, rugged and tested mechanism being used. I feel that many teams you find would have a similar reaction.
*Not first hand experience, my lead mentor while I was a student told us this story from when he was with them.
You need a maybe on the vote.
If it ended up being solely up to me, then yes. It is at most 12" to get the bumper above the line. That it. If it was a height like last year, then no. But even so, our rope failed three times during the course of competitions last year, meaning we fell from three full climbs. The worst damage was one weld snapping and we drilled a hole and threw a bolt in. So a fall from 12" won’t do much unless your bot is extremely weak, and in that case it will break from defense anyway.
If our robot was lifted >18" off the ground and we hadn’t watched a match of the lifting robot, I’d be very uncomfortable.
We’re planning on making a pit demo to show our climbing mechanism with some plates totalling ~300 lbs (gonna try to make it safe ::safety:: ). Hopefully if other teams see that, they’ll trust it on the field.
I’d say it very strongly depends on the team. You kinda get used to which teams can carry their weight vs which teams let you down. 
I want Ws and ranking points.
Barring knowledge that we’re physically incapable of getting up on somebody, I’m telling them to climb on. If we fall, we’ll deal with it in the pits.
Edit: this is really just my own opinion, not the opinion of my team. I phrased this inappropriately and would like to revise. I think that using a bot as a ramp and then climbing is somewhat dangerous during quals, not saying we wouldn’t do it, but it would definitely have to be practiced before doing it in a real match to ensure that the bot won’t fall and possibly damage both robots. If an alliance during elims wants to do this, more power to them. Once it gets to the point that they understand the consistency of the team they’ve picked to be the ramp/climber bot, I think it’s relatively safe.
Decisions to trust our robot’s safety to another robot would only be made after scouting their team (as most decisions are made). Then again, if your robot crumbles after a fall from 14" (ish) then you should be more worried about its structural integrity and whether it will survive aggressive defense.
This is more of a real-time strategy + discussion prior to the game with the alliance.
1618 made it up a lot of ramps in 2007. Know how many we practiced off the field? Zero.
Teams building ramps have incentive to build big, safe ramps that can be driven up on the fly.
Teams wanting to do well any year–but especially this year, it seems–have incentive to drive fearlessly. It can be fixed in the pits.
The scenario I’m still thinking of is 2017 or 2016-style failed climbs, but instead of having just ground under you it’s another robot.
design criteria - survive 140 pounds being dropped on your head. Hmmmm.
This year my team is trying to focus on the robustness of our robot. Comparing the easy to fix damages we took from falls last year to the 12-inch climb this year, I feel confident we can take the worst-case scenario spills from trusting other robots, especially with the strong build quality of many of the Indiana teams.
Would I trust my life to my students? :yikes:
I would be fine with it but I would be biting my nails during the climb and if it fails and they take a tumble then I would pull my hair out but like others say, I would want to look at the robot first.
I’ve thought about this myself, but it would probably require scouting and complete knowledge of the fact that it won’t break.
I’d absolutely try the “drive up this ramp onto my robot” or “drive onto this thing I’m putting on the ground, give me the ok sign, and I’ll lift you up a foot”, assuming everything looked plausibly structurally sound.
“Let me grab your robot and pick you up”, not so much.