The article brought up a subject of huge debate this year; wheels. Since all teams have to use the same wheels, is it better to use more or less? From the article-
This posed a new challenge for the Pirates, who were accustomed to engineering robots that could tear across a carpeted surface. “At first, we weren’t sure how many wheels to put on it,” said senior Jason Lewis, the team captain. “But there’s not that much you can do [to gain traction], unless you make some crazy braking mechanism. If you add eight wheels it’s not going to increase your friction. It’s just more wheels slipping, more weight and battery power being drawn.”
I know a lot of teachers were talking physics about this question, and the science seems to make sense. But it was also a gut feeling from our team that the more wheels turning on the floor, the better traction we'd have.
In our preliminary tests, I think our team got it right. We have quite a bit of traction, and couple that with our software implementation of traction control, I think we have the right combination.
The article also mentioned that The Pirates went with a shooter style design -
Instead, Lewis sketched out a robot that could effectively score points without moving much—a design that transferred from paper to parts largely unaltered. The robot employs a rotating turret capable of launching seven moon rocks in only four seconds, with a maximum distance of nearly four feet. A series of conveyor belts inside the robot suck moon rocks into a vertical shaft, which is capped with a rapidly spinning wheel that the Pirates simply call “the shooter.”
At this point it's difficult to know if a shooter or dumper will be the better design. It was our philosophy that a shooter would be not nearly accurate enough to score in these small trailers. Time will tell, in about a week.
Our first competition starts a week from today. Stay connected to my blog, I'll be micro-blogging during the matches to keep you updated on our status.
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