Robot Arm C

[illusionist]

so would a ballon be legal?? I personally would say no, but i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. But if they were in fact legal then i could see this becoming another mission(to a smaller extent... we would still have to do some tasks). i know this isn't the place for official clarifications blah blah blah..

I don't think it'd become at all like Mission. If you were able to raise the pingpong ball 9ft (the size of an average room), you'd get 5.5 points. Unless my interpretation of the rules is entirely off....

yeah but if we had a ballon in a gym or a stadium, then you have ceilings of upwards of 15 meters or 30 points.. you'll still need to do some of the run to get a good score, maybe the bonus jug and the ping pong balls. Then you'll be getting scores comparable of teams getting all the items, with a mediocre height task. So it really depends on if they actually allow balloons. Otherwise i don't see any design allowing the robot to get above 3 meters or so then you wouldn't have any team that could not attempt to pick up and move most of the objects. Maybe one or two at Nationals might get over 3 meters.. but you never know with scioly there are always really cool designs at every competition

That's true. From my personal experience, Robot Arm has never been held in anything higher than maybe 15ft. I'm guessing the same will be true this year as well

[jander14indoor]

so would a ballon be legal?? I personally would say no, but i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. But if they were in fact legal then i could see this becoming another mission(to a smaller extent... we would still have to do some tasks). i know this isn't the place for official clarifications blah blah blah..

OK, since you said it for me, I won't repeat the blah, blah...

Read para 3.e, I suspect it rules out a balloon as it would have positive gage pressure.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Jdogg]

so would a ballon be legal?? I personally would say no, but i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be. But if they were in fact legal then i could see this becoming another mission(to a smaller extent... we would still have to do some tasks). i know this isn't the place for official clarifications blah blah blah..

OK, since you said it for me, I won't repeat the blah, blah...

Read para 3.e, I suspect it rules out a balloon as it would have positive gage pressure.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

but what if you inflated it during the run..

[iwonder]

I read that and skipped over it assuming pneumatic implied air... oops I don't think you could inflate it during the run, because you'd need something like helium to get the lift, and that'd have to be compressed.

[Jdogg]

I read that and skipped over it assuming pneumatic implied air... oops I don't think you could inflate it during the run, because you'd need something like helium to get the lift, and that'd have to be compressed.

True.... so balloons are not allowed, that in some ways makes me happy. Now we don't have to worry about the height task until the robot run is perfected.

[jander14indoor]

We worked HARD to make sure this event didn't become all about the bonus. And your input last year on this list was helpful in getting there. Help much appreciated, the rule would have had all kinds of silly loop holes otherwise.

Things to consider:
The bonus is the last action in your tasks, you'll have used most of your time by the time you start it.
The bonus isn't that big. Look at the multiplier. You'd have to raise the ball 5 meters to equal ONE item in the bonus jug, 37.5 meters to equal a 'perfect' run. As mentioned, you aren't likely to have that tall a room for the event. You will still need a perfect or almost 'perfect' run to be competitive.
At least part of the lift mechanism has to have been used to score at least one other point.

So, focus on the basic tasks as last year. A good, fast, accurate, controllable arm. Lots of practice. Leave some real estate on the base for the bonus. Work on the bonus as low priority until you have the rest right. THEN focus on the bonus.

Note, documentation is no longer a tie breaker, they are all objective!! Documentation is still important because if you ignore it there is a large penalty, but no longer the discriminator among the top devices.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[twototwenty]

Just one question: Is the bonus measured in small enough increments to make it unlikely that there will be ties?

[harryk]

Things to consider:
The bonus is the last action in your tasks, you'll have used most of your time by the time you start it.
The bonus isn't that big. Look at the multiplier. You'd have to raise the ball 5 meters to equal ONE item in the bonus jug, 37.5 meters to equal a 'perfect' run. As mentioned, you aren't likely to have that tall a room for the event.

Last year at State they held robot arm out in a huge gym with a 13.4m ceiling, but that'd still only get me 26.8 points

[jander14indoor]

Just one question: Is the bonus measured in small enough increments to make it unlikely that there will be ties?

I certainly hope so!!! 0.02 points per cm, and I verified I can measure that precisely for less than $100 or so before we set the number.

Note, some of the restrictions we put on were specifically to make it hard to raise it a long way.

Note also, the tie breakers no longer include the subjective judgement of your documentation. The first is now time. If everyone hits 3 min exactly, that should break up the heights by itself. Less than three minutes timing to tenths should minimize the need to use the second tie-breaker. In 10 years or so of the flying events, I've only seen a tie breaker used once or twice timing to tenths.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

[Jdogg]

We worked HARD to make sure this event didn't become all about the bonus. And your input last year on this list was helpful in getting there. Help much appreciated, the rule would have had all kinds of silly loop holes otherwise.

Things to consider:
The bonus is the last action in your tasks, you'll have used most of your time by the time you start it.
The bonus isn't that big. Look at the multiplier. You'd have to raise the ball 5 meters to equal ONE item in the bonus jug, 37.5 meters to equal a 'perfect' run. As mentioned, you aren't likely to have that tall a room for the event. You will still need a perfect or almost 'perfect' run to be competitive.
At least part of the lift mechanism has to have been used to score at least one other point.

So, focus on the basic tasks as last year. A good, fast, accurate, controllable arm. Lots of practice. Leave some real estate on the base for the bonus. Work on the bonus as low priority until you have the rest right. THEN focus on the bonus.

Note, documentation is no longer a tie breaker, they are all objective!! Documentation is still important because if you ignore it there is a large penalty, but no longer the discriminator among the top devices.

Jeff Anderson
Livonia, MI

What is your definition of "used"? like if the shoulder joint of the arm didn't move then the point wouldn't be scored? I know this isn't the place for official clarifications blah blah blah