Ok so instead of building a wall bot can you make a net that attaches from you to your partner then hoist it up to make a wallbot. But also have it so it can detach easily. Kinda make it a modular design that can attach to most bots
You are not allowed to attach/.detach major modules during a competition.
This year, R1 only affected drive and electronics, which means you could switch out a lift, catapult, wall, or whatever other Subsystem 3 you wanted.
Why not see if you can make two robots connected by a very long wire. Those robots will be 18x18x9, so they could stack on each other. The top robot (That would drive off the bottom robot during auton) Will be a wallbot that blocks the enemy’s team, and will consist of 6 motors. The bottom robot, would be picking up stars and flinging/shooting stars to the other side (Will shoot higher than the wallbot’s height). This would be an interesting robot, if someone could do it!
(Total would be 3 robots on your side, except logically 2)
This would be a major engineering nightmare, while being amazing (and possibly quite competitive) if someone can actually build it :P. Honestly though, I wouldn’t waste many motors on a wall bot but instead just drop a 2 motor extension against the wall with my main bot (maybe it could clip on, I’m unsure of the rules regarding that) and let it expand to create a wall, which might take 5-6 seconds out of your autonomous, but I think overall would be a better solution as your main bot will have access to 8 or 10 motors (and possibly pneumatics), meaning a more powerful base or some more awesome mechanisms.
It’s also important to remember rules and issues with entanglement, as a wire sticking between two robots on a field might sound good in theory, but is just a disaster waiting to happen if a partner inadvertently comes between your two robot pieces (and not in a figurative sense).
For the long wires and such, I remember in skyrise several teams that went with a dual-robot design backed the wire with polycarbonate or metal strips, making it less susceptible to entanglement and also legal, as wire by itself would probably not be.
We are allowed to use conduit for wire management and protection. Is flat conduit a thing, or a thing we can make efficiently? That would do the job pretty well, and if it’s flat, an alliance partner could probably drive over it. I also remember seeing teams weave wires through chain for Skyrise to protect it. I don’t think that caused any problems with wires or driving, but I’m not sure.
Maybe if the bot that disattached from the other could lay it on the ground as it drives during autonomous. It would still be a hazard if your drivers messes up but it could definitely negate the risk. Whether this falls under wire management though is another issue.