So I showed pieces of the video that I edited from competition 2008. I want to know what you thought of it.... so leave comments. The only person who comments is Julien. I'm really only saying this so that I know who is ACTUALLY reading the blog. I want to make sure everyone checks this fairly regularly. Also, if you want to be added to an email list so that you get updated every time this blog is updated, leave a comment and I will add you to that list. Next meeting, I will be discussing fundraising ideas for most of the meeting. I want everyone to think of an idea to raise money, and talk about it next Tuesday. For now, I'm going to list a bunch of photos with bot names, and I want you to tell me what you think the strengths and weaknesses are. If you check this, and look at the bots, you'll have a huge advantage next week over those who don't, and I'll like you more. :P
Overlord
The Blender(no it isn't that high off the ground - it's just up on a dolly)
HerculesThe lifter at the front can lift 200 lbs, the things on the back are saw blades.
AnklebiterThere IS Lexan armor, but only top and bottom. The back has aluminum plate armor.
FrostbiteThe thresher at the front weighs 55 lbs.
Fairy PrincessPneumatic lifter on the front, foam-filled non-pneumatic tires, titanium armor.
That should be enough for you to think about for now. And I just want to say that MIT's battlebots team in 1999 used magnetic wheels. Think about that, and we'll talk about it next week.
-Dan
6 comments:
I think that all the bots have a
weak side. The one with the flipper wont really hert the bot if it can work on both sides. If the blender gets flipped upside down, then it will be useless. The first one in the list will not do any damage if the bot that they are facing is lower than the spinner. I think copperhead III could crush any of them
The Overlord looks pretty well defended but its attack is weak. If it was to get flipped over it would lose all means of attack and menuverability.
Same goes for the blender. It seems like it is supposed to spin but if it was flipped upside down, it would spin like a top which would make it less effective.
Hercules is another bot that falls under this category. Heavily defended and pretty strong attack. A good thing about this bot is that its wheels are on the inside of its shell which makes them less susceptable.
Anklebiter has a good design but the material used is weak. We talked before about the downside of aluminum. Very maleable.
In the Frostbite, Im not sure if the weight distribution of a bot matters but if you have 55 lbs in the front...the weight should be more evenly distributed throughout.
And Fairy Princess, the foam filled tires? I dno the plus to this but it just sounds weak. The pneumatic lifter is a good idea since air is readily available and has proven worthy in industrial uses.
the hercules one is very strong; however, idk if it's the angle of the picture, but the piece that flips the bot seems a little too high off the ground, so it would be too hard to actually flip it.
and as far as anklebiter goes, if copperhead attacks it from the sides, anklebiter is pretty much done because the tires don't look like they can stand the drum, and the drum could probably bend the saw
If you're using Copperhead 3 then you should try to do the following*:
Overlord- try and damage the wheels because their made out of rubber and plastic, if you get close enough you should be able to flip it and their are some bolt that you could shear off.
Blender- the second the match starts you should rush Copperhead up to it and push it against the wall to prevent it spinning up, later once the drum has spun up on Copperhead try to flip it or somehow get on top and destroy the cone thing and shear some bolts.
Hercules- using Copperhead's drum try to damage the lifting arm and the saw blades, this bot also has some bolts you could shear off, if you manage to flip it then it would be immobilized but that would be fairly diffficult to do.
Anklebiter- obviously you should go for the aluminum armor which will be weak unless it has 70-75 aluminum (strength of steel but super expensive), also go for the wheels, the saw blade and its drivebelt are very exposed and should be easy to damage.
Frostbite- the bot looks like it can run upside down so dont worry about flipping it, the wheels while similar to Overlord's are stronger because the hub isnt plastic, their hubs are aluminum though so you should still attack them, attacking the robot head on is not a good idea because their weapon is heavier than ours and they have more 'teeth' than we do, if you came at it at an angle though you should be able to bend if not break the shaft of the weapon.
Fairy Princess- you wont be able to damage titanium armor however you can easily shear off the bolts holding it on, if you hit the lifting arm from the side you may be able to damage it so it doesnt work, although the foam filled wheels may seem weak they are definitely not, the tires already have holes in them so you cant pop them and the foam acts as a shock absorber, it would like hitting a pillow with a hammer and hoping that it will break.
*Please note that these are weaknesses that Copperhead 3 can take advantage of. If we were using say a full-body spinner then some of these weaknesses wouldnt apply, and there would be some other additional weaknesses that would.
As I was leaving the meeting I thought of another possible senario.... What if we split up the club in groups of say 2-4 and each group would specialize in something such as metal or wiring. We would build one bot this year but if every group specializes in one thing then this might enhance the bot. This would also be more efficient since not everyone can be at the builds at once. Just a thought....
Post a Comment