i watched the first weekend of compettion and saw that everyone was having trouble stacking boxes and i didnt watch any webcast this weekend and i wanted to know if any robot had success stacking the boxers and if you guys have any tips cause we are a stacking robot and i am a arm controller along with someone else i mean we have ti down were we can stack fast but like i want tips on how to protect your stacks or waht cause everyone has been to compettion i would just like to know some input
I’ve only watched but it seems the match moves too fast for stacking. I won’t go into why stacking isn’t worth it in most cases. To defend a stack keep your arm out/up and any grippers extended. The competitive teams use there arms like maces with a sideways slash, if your arm is there then they can’t hit your stack as easy.
We competed at the Chesapeake regional, and we successfully stacked several times. We didn’t do anything major, just stacks of two and sometimes three. This was because we were impatient and stacked a sideways bin on top of an upside down one, or we had to do things on other parts of the field.
In terms of time, we could make a two stack in about 10 seconds or less, it took a little longer to pick out a good bin from the “sea”. The only other robot I saw successfully stack was MOE, and it seemed to take them a long time to get the right bins and release (but it was impressive nevertheless). But keep in mind, you may find yourself on your side with some time to spare.
Although many people think stacking is a waste of time, I personally disagree with that generalization. In such a destructive game, stacking will require team work. If your alliance parter can help defend you while you stack, you could very well be successful. In terms of defending them, putting stacks in the back corners of the scoring zone and staying between it and your opponent seems to work well. However, if your robot can cover the stack, even better.
Making a backup stack can be very important, if you can spare the time.
Good luck,
Greg
well are robot is made to pick up the boxes any way they fall we can pick them up sideways or upside down i mean when we wehre practicing are mentors yelled at us cause we didnt practice that much with strait up boxes but then we disproved them int he first regionals most of the boxes werent strait up
That was a wise move, since those bins are top heavy. Most bins end up on their sides, but there are a good number that end up upside down, which can be great for stacking.
Greg
MOE had an awesome stacking bot… it was able to orient bins while stacking. (something that my team can’t do) I think the main problem in stacking is that it’s time consuming, and the stacks get knocked down really easily. Most teams found that doing other actions were more important.