I’m not design or cad guy but I had this idea and I wanna know if it’s possible. I think the advantage of something like this is the possibility of being a static mechanism (except for the expansion)
I mean… it’s possible. Your robot would probably be the ramp and then probably a hatch mechanism. That would be it. Also, the incline is kinda steep so some teams may not even be able to get over your bot. Making sure that your bot is also very sturdy and potentially having proof would also be a good selling point to a) have teams agree to climb your bot and b) to teams if they were to pick you for playoffs.
I measured and it’s about 20º for the first ramp and 30º for the other. Is it too steep? As I said I from other area.
You will want to be careful, because the ramp with most likely have to be pretty steep. It may be difficult creating that type of ramp without extending 30 in beyond your bot.
Is it feasible…the answer is yes…but the real question would be:
Will other teams WANT to use your ramp bot and risk tipping over?
Also: Your robot won’t score any points unless it leaves the HAB and returns. Bear that in mind–and while you’re out you may as well do something along the lines of scoring.
Pure ramp bots like that were a disaster last year mainly because it depends on the driver skill of other teams. The lack of practice time driving over an unfamiliar object can be very difficult to navigate especially for such a precise action with a very limited time constraint.
What ^ said
Also, the angle may be too great to transition from floor to the ramp because of the length of ramp. Most robots will hang up on their bumpers or perimeter.
A few things to consider.
How did ramps work last year when teams were looking straight on the path? The center channel did affect teams ability to line up correctly sometimes.
How did the ramps work last year when the bot had to climb from the side?
How do you think ramps will work this year where the driver viewing angle will be different?
If you plan on a ramp down the side are you also going to remove the cargo first?
The major limiting factor here is probably going to be the 30" extension limit. Unlike last year, this doesn’t go away for the end game. Also remember that there are 6 cargo pre-loaded in the depot on the side there. So you’ll have to clear those out before deploying a ramp there.
And all the stuff other people said about ramps being hard for other teams to navigate, if they even agree to risk climbing it. That too.
We’re looking at this too. Consider that you can extend 30" from both sides of your frame simultaneously; if you use this to your advantage, it could significantly reduce the incline of your ramp.
Keep in mind that you cannot support another robot unless your bumpers are fully within the HAB zone. From the side it won’t matter, but in front 30" means you have ~17" left before you’re out of the zone.
Rule citation please.
5.3 Scoring, Page: 36
Thanks for the correction. Then yes, you can dramatically drop the angle with a front/back ramp.
~75" horizontally from the platform to the floor will get you to 15°
As I said earlier though, keep in mind that the 30" horizontal extension rule still exists in the endgame and in the HAB zone. So unless you plan on having the ramp go through your robot, you still have a maximum extension of 30".
OK, I had some fun with this. If you can only go 30 inches out from one side of your robot, what is the narrowest robot you could conceivably design (120 inch perimeter) and what ramp degree could you get from it?
A 35x25 robot could extend to about 65 inches with a 20 degree angle (those are rounded).
If you could extend out all 4 sides that would change things. When I initially read that rule, I thought maybe it could mean 30 inches in any direction. But even with a really narrow 45x15 robot (with extendable wings! ) to remain in the HAB zone, you’re still only down to 17 degrees.
[ Hypotenuse = 22 / sin (low-angle). Longest dimension = H - 30. Short Dim = (120 - 2*LD) / 2 ]
OK, I’m assuming that LD-robot = LD-ramp-on-robot, but that’s not much help.
—edit - I forgot to change the LD calc to H - 60 in the rule breaking case, but the point remains.
My team calculated that anything much over 15 degrees like the platform ramp might be too steep for us. We were in danger of getting hung up on last year’s platform ramps. We’ve ditched ramp bots as an idea.
Oh man it’s good that you pointed that out. I assumed that an alliance could just sit on the HAB all game and still get a ranking point, and nobody on my team had corrected me yet. This makes way more sense.
Thanks guys for all responses!! I will discuss all the matters you brought up with my team