We are not capable of shooting yet with our robot. Any other teams out there at the same point?? We are developing a defensive strategy and have quite a few ideas. Anyone have some insight?
Thanks, we’re still looking forward to our first competition this weekend!!
Defense-only robots played key roles for their alliances in playoffs at the one official event played so far: ISR District Event #1.
it can work well at the beginning of the year. Robots aren’t working well. You have the potential to keep more points from being scored than the offensive only robot that would replace you. As the season goes on a defense only robot becomes less and less relevant as offensive robots become better and better.
Totally fine to be at this point. like others said defense is huge but your team could also work on some way to “herd” the notes to your side of the field so other bots on your alliance can have a shorter cycle time.
I highly recommend your drivers watch this video:
thanks for the insight. we have our shooter mostly assembled and done but won’t have quite enough time to add everything. sacrifices for time must be made.
We were thinking about that. But I vaguely remember in the rules something about not “herding” notes from wing to wing??
Build a wall or other blocking mechanism up to the height limit (two pool noodles might do a decent job).
hahahah I remember watching these videos a while ago.
As a team that has competed at worlds being a defense-only robot. The most important thing is knowing the rules, you do not want to give the other alliance points. You also don’t want to get in your own alliance’s way while still being able to defend. Our team has found that playing counter-defense can be counter-intuitive because now your alliance partner has to get around two robots.
In my mind, there are two different kinds of FRC defence, Active and Passive.
Active defense is where you search out the other alliance’s top scorer and try to push them around the field.
Passive defense is where you just block off one area of the playing field by sitting there and getting in the way of anyone who passes.
Both work but one may be better depending on the alliance you are facing and the capabilities of your drive train.
You can bring them back to your alliance zone, you just can control only one at a time.
Awesome insight from someone who seems to be veteran. Thank you. Watching some matches from week 0 and archived videos on strategy we came up with a few ways to play along those lines. But explaining it like that makes a lot of sense.
Do you have an intake? Could you play defense and cycle notes across the field?
That was a thought also. But at the current moment we aren’t quite there, very close, but not quite. Bulldozing may be our only way.
Been in your shoes. And it paid off in astounding fashion.
Make your wiring as bombproof as you can. Hot glue. Labels. Zip ties. Find someone with a REV Radio Power Module if you don’t.
Get your bumpers rock solid.
Know the rules, know where you’re protected and where they’re protected.
Get some fans to cool down your drive motors between matches, they’ll get toasty. I like these (note the Warehouse Deal one is $10 cheaper and surely fine), but use what you can get on short call.
Have your pit ready to grab what you need quickly.
Be down for whatever, even if it means additions or subtractions to the robot.
Get tall to make their shots harder, or get short to slow them under their stage. Wouldn’t mess with middle ground where can get you stuck.
And have fun with it. Success is going to be measured in running the whole 2:30 of every match, and if you see the playoffs it’ll be off your driving skill and being a pleasure to deal with.
Go get 'em!
Awesome, thanks for the encouragement!
Some of our most successful defensive measures happened by knowing the rules (mostly watching for pinning calls) and being very aggressive. Our regional win as a primarily defensive robot came when our driver was given permission to break the robot if it meant the defense won us the match.
That being said, we didnt break the robot because it was well constructed and balanced to begin with that year. Balance matters with defense, make sure the center of mass is as low as possible because you dont want to be the one that flips yourself in the process.
Hahahahahah, that’s awesome!!! Good thing you didn’t break it. Maybe we’ll be that aggressive in week 3 at our second competition if we don’t improve on anything.
We’re thinking of adding this guy real quick to maybe get us some blocks of notes… Thoughts???
I think a note would shoot right through that, It would also be too low to stop a speaker shot.
Great for looks though!
