I was wondering if it might be effective for bots that can’t shoot or amp for whatever reason to attach pool noodles (or some slightly fancier tarp/canvas thing) to their bot in order to block shots? I know something similar to this has occurred before.
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My team got bullied by 1138 in 2022 when they attached paper to the top of their climber to block our low shooter. I think this type of defense can definitely be effective this year with so may low bots.
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I expect it to be very effective when driven well. Pretty much any shot below 3ft can be blocked by a max-height robot, including the protected zones. When combined with other defensive strategies such as driving into opponents to rotate them, blocking access to the subwoofer, and generally being able to congest the speaker, make it extremely difficult for the opposing alliance to score
I am missing something here…
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Noodle shields were common enough in 2013
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I think i somehow completely hallucinated that.
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Team 6161 had a similar robot in 2022. I think it would be possible to do something similar this year.
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Bring it. Tech fouls are like candy. 
Funnily enough FIRST prohibits giving out food (candy) in the rules…
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The defender doesn’t need to touch you to prevent your shot from going in, and if your shooter is low or really fast, the defenders don’t even need to be near the podium to block the shot.
30ft/s shot from 2ft high from the podium gets blocked from 3ft away, upping that shot to 40ft/s allows it to get blocked from 4.5ft away, extrapolate for lower or faster shooters as you desire.
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I encourage you to look how much space is on the field in those areas and how little it would take to result in contact.
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My old team (4327) did a similar thing in a semifinal tiebreaker match at the 2016 East Kentwood District. Iirc they cobbled together a net from the structure of their pit and used it to play defense on 2767’s great shooter
Depending on the angle.
And if you’re too close and the shooting robot is able to touch you, Tech Foul. (Also if they’re able to put a note against you while still being in contact with the Podium.) As long as they’re in contact with the Podium (or in the Amp Zone, at all), the Tech Foul is against you.
Oh, and to make matters worse: If it’s in the last 20 seconds of the match, Stage protection applies instead of Podium protection. Stage protection means 2 tech fouls… unless it’s a qual match when an RP is added.
I put a lot of thought into quick climb to draw a tech foul. Ultimately decided it wasn’t worth the mechanism weight for the 2 times it will happen in a season and the 1 time that it can be capitalized on.
I am glad the GDC decided against simple “contact with chains” for this particular foul, that would have been too easy. Bot off the ground is way more balanced considering the severity of that penalty.
Simply contact with chains would be a nightmare. Some robots at the local scrimmage were brushing them as they passed under the stage…
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Feel like we dodged a competition week two team update there…
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Most other angles end up being even easier to block, with a high yet slow shooter mounted to the back of a robot being about as unfavorable as you can get (almost every team will have a more forwards shooter and many shoot much faster than 30ft/s). Also remember that anything that can block the ring will also block the apriltags. A decent driver will be able to keep enough distance to not be anywhere near the podium and still block most shots from the podium while being in prime position to drive into or in front of anybody trying to take closer shots (and bad drivers shouldn’t be playing defense at all, but this has always been the case).
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Live footage of a pool noodle trying to block a note.
These things hit hard. It’s probably the most dangerous game piece we have had in 10 years.
Something sturdier would probably work though. You’ll probably want to combine it with another type of defense, which I talk about in this thread
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We used a reflector marker stick for driveways in 2013. Our robot was pretty bad but we did good defense because we were able sit in front of full court shooters and block their shots
If they used a pool noodle or a vegetable mass, why would it matter as long as the other teams have not thought of a way to counter any theoretical defense? I know in Army planning, we have to think of what type might be used instead of the specific type.
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I think a pool noodle definitely couldnt stop a note in its tracks (which is probably good, you dont want to accidentally control multiple notes by having them drop into your bot), but I think it could definitely slow one down enough to alter its trajectory. Something sturdier would probably work better! It would be interesting to actually test this, ill talk to my team about it.
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