Posted by Dan, Student on team #10, BSM, from Benilde-St. Margaret’s and Banner Engineering.
Posted on 3/8/99 7:47 PM MST
With all the superlative adjectives used about these guys, I’ve yet to discover exactly what they do and how they do it. I’ve seen Wildstang’s pictures (thank you!) but haven’t quite figured them out yet. Could someone give me the low-down on these guys? Do they climb the pole too? Can they load floppies from the floor? What qualities did they look for in an ally? Thanks :-Dan
Posted by Mike McIntyre, Coach on team #47 from Pontiac Central HS.
Posted on 3/8/99 8:53 PM MST
In Reply to: Team 71 - Beatty Hammond posted by Dan on 3/8/99 7:47 PM MST:
Beatty is quick and versatile: they can pick up floppies easily from the floor using a velcro conveyor belt that dumps into a storage bin which, of course, reliably raises 8’ at the end of the match; they can climb the pole or drive onto the puck with ease. They chose Daimler/OSMTech as their alliance: a machine that was very dependable at getting on the puck (in fact, OSMTech routinely drove over the puck at the start of matches to go load up since they weren’t slowed by it and it allowed them to avoid floppy entanglement!) OSMTech balanced the ticket nicely since they brought brute strength and reliability with them: both attributes served the alliance well; in one of the finals matches, their opponents had control of the puck and a robot on top when OSMTech drove right up onto the puck and pushed the opponent over! Individually, the teams are awesome; together, they are a nightmare. Sweet dreams, everybody.
: With all the superlative adjectives used about these guys, I’ve yet to discover exactly what they do and how they do it. I’ve seen Wildstang’s pictures (thank you!) but haven’t quite figured them out yet. Could someone give me the low-down on these guys? Do they climb the pole too? Can they load floppies from the floor? What qualities did they look for in an ally? Thanks :-Dan
Posted by David, Student on team #269, BruQuest, from Oconomowoc High School and Quest .
Posted on 3/8/99 9:39 PM MST
In Reply to: Team 71 - Beatty Hammond posted by Dan on 3/8/99 7:47 PM MST:
Hi
Well, yeah, Team 71 built a very impressive robot to me. Their system of
picking up floppies is really unique (and Mike here above me did a really
good job in explaining it). And they climbed on the puck either using the
pole or just by driving on to it.
BUT I think they have some downsides, too. First of all they sometimes had
problems with accidently picking up the wrong floppies because once their velcro
thing gets a hold of a floppy it just runs into the basket.
Another thing that I though about is that you could just try to move your
robot above (or onto) their floppies so they can’t pick them up with their velcro
(a little weight should be enough)
And finally they are not unbeateable especially when they don’t get a very
good partner. Our team happened to be teamed up with the “new apple corps” from
Appleton, Wisconsin (yeah… the only two wisconsin teams as an alliance 
and
we played vs team 71 and I don’t remember the other team. First it looked like we
would lose since Team 71 just picked up their floppies and then grabbed the pole
on the puck and pulled it over to our side of the field. But then once they raised
their robot on the pole we were able to push the puck to the other corner again (in
the last seconds of the match) and both we and Appleton climbed onto the puck…
436 points or so
But nevertheless… Team 71 won the Chicago Regionals which definately shows their
strength. And their robot really seemed VERY impressive to me! Great job Team 71!!
CYA
David