We proudly present our RI3D for Vex Tower Takeover! After 3 long days, we think we have come up with something that is a little out of the ordinary. Hopefully you find it the same. Before reading ahead, we suggest you take a look at the video at the end of this message.
In order to explain the design process for this robot, we will be posting a design document and video documentary in the near future. Be sure to look out for them if you are interested.
Hahaha first wallbot of the season. Looks pretty good.
Incredible! Well done, phenomenal effort!
Very cool. You have are four segments and two robots in 18x18x18, that’s impressive.
Have you tested it with a robot really trying to get over it, how well does it actually stop them?
Also how long does full deployment take because blocking this from deploying is very easy and you would need to deploy it while there are no robots in the way.
Rule exploit idea: If a robot is trying to get over the wall does that count as trapping the wall bot, since it has no room to move. And also how does trapping/pinning work with tether bots?
We are hoping to do the wallbot only during worlds.
And it will be a different approach to yours.
But still… this wallbot(s)… i am speechless… I am stunned.
Deployment of either segment is decently fast. The bot would prime to drive over during autonomous. The splitting of the robot makes it particularly difficult to block its general mobility.
One must remember that the bot has the key factor of individual deployments. One of their robots must leave to obtain cubes if they want to win; thus, a wall + available defense bot is deployed. The other robot also has to leave in order for the stacking robot to score in the remaining zone. Separate deploys plus the ability of the two bases to become defense bots really outlines the bot’s killer qualities.
A document with further FAQs will be released soon.
We are a collection of VRC alums from NorCal.
After three days of blood, sweat, and more sweat, we’re proud to present our RI3D.
Let us assure you that this is not a robot you want to miss.
Linked below is a short teaser.
Be sure to look out for the full reveal coming soon.
Obviously, we won’t be answering any questions until the reveal is released.
Thanks!
In the reveal, there’s a quick clip of 315G - one of the really powerful defense players in Turning Point - driving their 6m base into the wall. The wall hardly budges.
I’m pretty sure we have more footage of the wall being pushed, and that footage should be included in our documentary when it comes out. As a point of reference, the large wall is about 11 lbs and the small wall is about 5 lbs.
Wallbots will mostly be used to block cubes. But if it’s really large it may prevent, a teams alliance partner from reaching cubes from the other side. Limiting the maximum number of points. And how do wallbots get points if all they do is help their own allsiance. Wouldn’t they only get ranking points in that case? Hopefully someone has an answer.
A goal of our wallbot was to make it impossible for the opponents to score. The walls block the scoring zones, and the basebots are intended to play aggressive enough defense that the opponents cannot reach towers either.
This leaves what we call the “1v0” situation - our partner has essentially free reign to score enough cubes to overcome the auton deficit and clinch the match.
In its current firm, the robot can’t score cubes. However, one of the proposed functions to attach onto the tank drive’s differential was a basic 4 cube or tower scorer. I think there’s enough room to expand (heh) on this idea and make it actually score.
Even if it can’t score, the fundamental assumption is that the robot has a reputation that gets it picked by a top seed anyways.
How many motors would a wallbot system use, or will it be a release system on startup?
The bot shown uses eight motors in total (2 four motor bases with a differential arm on one). The walls are passively deployed using either distance based pins or base expansion - there are no motors on the walls themselves. A robot theoretically does not need to dedicate any more motors to use a passive deploy wall.
Is this legal?
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Yes.
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This is one of the most amazing bots I’ve seen for tower takeover. It’s amazing that you guys did this in three days, and now I see why there were so many involved.
Also I love the motor sharing on the base that’s awesome.
I love it. Great job figuring out how to legally drop a wall on the floor and still technically be attached to it👍 Overall it’s pretty amazing
How many people were involved in the process of building this robot?
That was a pretty good Worlds Reveal
How long did you have to work each day? Did you count the man hours? And for engineering notebooks did you have time to record what was done? Or did you assign a specfic person in the team to do that?
Uhh. That’s gonna be annoying.