From the kickoff today I got a couple of ideas of what will be made. After reading make your own suggestions
Ball Dumper
A bot that scoop up more than 1 ball at a time and dump into the goal.
Vaccum Bot
A bot that can “suck” up balls and distribute them into the goals.
*Variation (A)*Ball Shooter: Picks up balls and shoots them. Variation (B) Ball Pusher: Pushes balls through the PVC pipes.
Bully Bot
A bot that can alter the game drastically with bully like actions.
Variation (A) ForkLift: Literally carries a robot to a different area to help the team. Variation (B) Ball Popper: Takes balls out of goals to help the team.
Goal Controller
A bot able to control 1, 2 or even 3 goals at a time.
In my opinion, ball control will be the key to success. If your bot can move goals, and you get paired with another bot that can only move goals, then what? I want everyone to post any new robot classes they can think of ( or variations on mine). Thanks
I think the most abundant type of robot that will be made this season is a toss up between the vacuum bot and the goal controller. Some teams will think that the best way to go is a goal controller, simply because they could take a filled goal (by either their alliance partner, or their enemy) and move it into their scoring zone. Other teams will think that having a bot that can effectively manipulate balls will be the best way to go. They can fill the goal with the balls quickly and have their alliance partner worry about getting the goal into the scoring zone. My personal choice is a goal controller (major func.) with some ball handling capability (minor func.).
Personally I think that it the strategy that teams are going to have to use can’t be like last year at all. Last year there were balls to be collected, large and small, things to be lifted, bars to be limboed (spl?), bridges balanced, end zones, etc. etc. etc. This year the tasks required are simply much much easier. Because of that, I don’t think that teams will effectively be able to “zero in” on one certain method. Since there’s now another team on the field, robots will have to be robust like Kamen said, and also very very versitile.
~Tom Fairchild~, who’s thinking about how fast the game is going to be on a field without any obstructions…
I initially thought a goal controller would have the potential to be the most powerful since the scoring medium of the balls is completely dependent upon the location of the goals. If someone (and I’m sure they will) can figure out a way to grab all 3 goals - 520 lbs of robot and goal oughta be fun to manuever with - they’ve essentially guaranteed a win. Then again, the whole opponents score thing messes it all up since this would basically prevent them from getting any points. After much contemplation I’ve actually realized that a faster, more maneuverable robot able to drag only 1 goal with a ball-gatherer of sorts ought to be much more effective. A team with 2 bots of this sort could effectively dominate the match by reaching first and controlling 2 of the 3 goals, and filling them with balls. They would then, based on what the opponents did with the third goal, be able to shift the balls around to get as close as possible to an even distribution. I think inspite of everyone’s loving a good lumbering, robot-crunching bully and all of the ensuing accidental carnage, bully bots are going to be the least effective just because of the danger of dq with risks of malicious intents and “entangling.”
If my team is any indication, goal movers will be the most numerous. I’m probably the only one on my team who thinks that ball manipulation is as, if not more important. The way I see it is that any robot that can supply the force can push a goal. Although a specialized gripper would aid in moving goals, I think a robot would have no problem pushing a goal from one zone into another (with few exceptions, the farthest a goal will ever have to be moved at any given time). With that in mind, to me it would make sense to use the valuable space and weight of the robot to move balls into (and/or out of) a goal. These, of course, are just my opinions and are no more valid than anyone else’s opinions, but I hope that all you goal mover advocates will give at least a second thought about ball manipulation. (Anyway, I’d love to see someone make a working launcher like the one at the kickoff, seeing as my team probably won’t.)
My team was thinking that that we should build some kind of goal mover, that was fast and could grab on to one goal and then adding some kind of mechanism to get balls into that goal, plant the goal where they want it, and rush off to where they want their robot to end up. We believe that a majority of robots will be a hybrid with a specialty of one or the other. You just hope that in the qualifying rounds you get robots that have strength in your area of weakness.
I think, perhaps, the most effective robot will be a ‘Superman’ robot. one that can multitask. perhaps one that can hold on to a goal or two WHILE putting balls into it. Then again, we may want a robot that can defend itself against a ‘bully’ bot. We don’t exactly know what we’re going to be up against.
An interesting idea: Maybe a MODULAR robot? one that can be quickly (like in 30 or less seconds) be configured to perform any (or more than one) of the required tasks in a match based on what the other team’s robot can do.
The genius in the game this year is that the game is very simple, so any number of interesting configurations can come out of it. I’m very excited to see what other teams (and my own) come up with. It’s going to be an interesting year.
After two long days of strategizing, my team has come up with some interesting ideas about hybrids. We predicted a 50/50 split between ball handlers and goal controllers (we’ve been calling them juggernaughts). But we rated all the components of the potential robots and compared them to our two most recent years’ robots and came to the conclusion that a good hybrid is far outside our ability to build. The only ones we anticipate seeing will be built professionally… our team does basic design and all fabiricating by the students.
Successful hybrids will not only be built by professionals. Our team has choosen to make a hybrid (and a succesful one at that). Help from local engineers can always help a team make a somewhat intricate robot.
Ryan, are you saying that your team is now only going to go for one of the two functions? My team is like yours in that we really don’t have even an engineer, just a bunch of kids and two guys that can do some metal/woodwork. No one really has any background in engineering. Last year, frankly, our robot was terrible. It was our rookie year and we just didn’t know what we were going to be up against. Today about 10 of us kids had a meeting, and we thought we were going to essentially be “Dead” unless we could build a ball handler/goal controller in one.
*Originally posted by Skanker *
**I think, perhaps, the most effective robot will be a ‘Superman’ robot. one that can multitask.
**
Very BAd idea!!! We tried that last year and just got way too carried away as I’m Sure some of you know… Between regionals and the time we had to ship it back we basically stripped 100 lbs off of the bot and redesigned it to go to FLA. And since we can NOT do a repeat of last year’s three day rebuild this year due to the new rules, I am hoping my team KEEPS IT SIMPLE!!!
I believe you have gotten the wrong idea of our team We have plenty of coaches, most of which are professional engineers, and the students have been doing training exercises for months (we built a warwagon, from brainstorming to metalworking and assembly). This year we even have a good budget. But we have a miracle-worker of an engineer who said it was exceedingly complicated to pull off a good hybrid (remember: “jack of all trades, master at none”). Last year we made a do-everything bot that ended up being mediocre… the previous year we had built a single-task bot and it was great! (perhaps you remember the grasshopper robot?) When I said the only good hybrids would be built professionally, I mean they would be machined by professional machinests who are being paid to do it, on CNC machines, and made out of solid titanium (ok, I’m exaggerating a little…)
this year my rookie team is planning to build a robot which can manipulate the goals. unfortunately, my personal idea has already been dimissed. i think that a hybrid between a ball and goal manipulator would be much better, as long as it could pick up at least 30 balls. being able to move all three goals could only score a robot 30 points, but a robot with only one goal and 30 balls would be worth 40. also, controlling all the goals would not allow your opponents to score any points, and therefore if you won, you would get nothing. onother reason, is that if you only control one of the three goals, it will be less likely that someone will try and take it from you since there are two others.
*Originally posted by Andy A. *
**Wait till FIRST decides to replace the carpet with ice next year, and watch all those canadian teams skate circles around us ;).
need to figure out what is important first 
