This was buried in another thread, thought I would bring it to the top to generate discussion.
This video shows two sister catapults going head to head this past weekend at teh Peachtree Qualifer in Georgia (Sunny’s home turf!).
It’s fun to watch. (Sorry about the long intro.)
Look at the difference experienced (right side) vs inexperienced driver (left side) makes. Especially since the experienced driver had to go it alone (his partner died after auton).
The catapult team on the right has won every tournament entered so far (Qty 2) …
Will be interesting to see how it evolves as folks catch on.
I think you can generalize your conclusions, Rick. The winners I’ve seen this year have all scored faster than their competitors. Total medium-balls-per-minute, whether from a quick dumper like 254A or spatula flippers like those in the video, the fast scorers are winning.
Karnak predicts: the next thing we will see is the Rise of the Giant Walls.
Plus lots of catapults. I think the spatula-bot is the perfect design for a less-experienced team since it is a straight-forward concept. High-speed dumpers like the Poofs’ “A” robot are a more-challenging engineering problem and probably best attempted by braver or more-experienced builders.
For what it’s worth, the only Exothermic team going with a catapult is 10X (last year’s 418), who competed with a catapult on Nov. 7 with mixed results. They are working on it. Most of the rest are working on different kinds of dumpers, one is a defensive strategy, and 575 – well, 575 is going in a different direction.
I watched the video and saw the more experienced driver put 13 footballs over the wall, usually 1-2 at a time, in 120 seconds. They also sent two white balls out of bounds.
I would guess that it/they averaged about 6 seconds per football. That is pretty good. It is also vulnerable to the right sort of opposing strategies.
The strategy can evolve faster than the robot design, and the flipper robots are suitable for more than the single strategy shown in the video.
On an unrelated strategy note, I checked on a practice field, and it looks like only 5 small balls will fill a triangular goal to the top, for a total of 15 points per goal, 30 point maximum for two goals and 10 small balls locked up.
Does anyone else see anything different?
“Read the rules” is always good advice.
Thanks for reposting the quiz.
Regarding strategy, 5 balls fill the goals and are unlikely to be removed,
so they are “locked up”.
1-3 extra balls sitting on top are more likely to be removed and thrown back.
All good inputs to strategic planning.
not only may balls on top be thrown back… but if a robot can reach them, it wouldn’t be all that difficult just to push them into the triangle locking them up for itself
I think the spatula-bot is the perfect design for a less-experienced team since it is a straight-forward concept. High-speed dumpers like the Poofs’ “A” robot are a more-challenging engineering problem and probably best attempted by braver or more-experienced builders.