A friend of mine and I recently had a conversation about clean sweep strategies. We were discussing whether or not scoring in the goals is worth it. We thought that the goals are locked up so those points that you make are permanent. But if you have a robot that can score goals (like a conveyor), a robot with a dumping bucket will be much better at scoring the medium balls (footballs) and these are worth more points. So what is your opinion.
A resonably good discussion has already been recorded here
https://vexforum.com/t/clean-sweep-game-for-2009-2010-what-do-you-think/15767/1 - You might want to pick up where it left off.
if you make a robot that can do both then you should be golden. that is my plan
Just to answer the question really quick,
I didn’t vote either yes or no, because if you look at it, that’s essentially 30 points we’re not worrying about…and if you look at it even further, that’s 10 points you take away from your own score…so ultimately becoming 40 points.
That difference might not seem much. I mean that’s like 8 footballs, which is not exactly EASY but fair do-able. But then again, when you’re in a high fight situation, it’s always nice to have 30 extra points on your score when you know that it’ll be a hard fight.
So ultimately, I think they’re defintiely WORTH it…I’m just not sure how much of my effort I would put into developing a mechanism that would specially achieve that purpose.
I’m trying to figure out how good the bots and drivers have to be to come back from an autonomous round where the opposing alliance filled the goals.
Filling the goals during autonomous just seems a huge advantage since the act of undoing it takes precious time.
i feel it is important because balls scored in the goals are virtually un-removable… it’s a much better solution than just dumping them into a point where your opponents will be able to use them, and you get a bit of bonus points
unless you do it in autonomous it doesnt seem to make up the time
because you would need to take time to line it up rather than just dumping and some of the fast strong robots (like some in elevation) would just ram into your arm
if you can do it quickly and efficiently then its a plus
but i dont think the effort is worth the hassle
One of our thoughts was to get a dumper capable of getting to 18" and then just hope that something goes into the goal as we dump.
i agree with TBA
the lock should be a BONUS thing
it would be hard (and time consuming) to make the machanism AND lock the balls
how heavy are 6 footballs and 15 smalls?
good mechanics should be able to lift and dump it no problem
im thinking to increse the “bucket” so we can hold more balls and dont need to “dump half” and go pick up again
It is important to remember that while the goals do get you more point with the small balls the medium sized balls score you more points overall. So while I do think the goals are somewhat important I do not believe they should be your main focus.
Yes I agree with bones000. But should I make it possible for my robot? Doing so would have advantages and disadvantages.
Titan 103
I respectfully disagree with this idea.
I believe that 30 points are a lot of points. And one must think that while a robot can fill up goals easily, it can use the same mechanisms to pick up other balls and deliver them over the wall. While this type of robot would not be efficient at dumping across the wall, I don’t think it’d be that catastrophic that it wouldn’t even be worth the effort.
For example, our partner team, has created a robot with a mechanism which centers around scoring in the triangle, but they can also handle the footballs without an issue. And as far as taking the time to “line up” is concerned, this is why sensors are available, that the driver can rely on those, but even then, it’s not entirely hard to line it up…like in Rack n’ Roll, times sometimes had to line up their robot above the poles…
I choose efficiency over the goals, yes, but I will say that the robots which reach finals in worlds, and even in most regionals, will be able to score in the triangle, with ease.
do you mean a “locker” AND a “dumper”
or just a “locker” and a really fast getting-balls-over-the-wall robot?
I’m not quite sure what your question is…
sorry i was kinda in a rush
what im asking is that is you partner team making a robot that can only lock balls and drop footballs off?
or can they also dump the other balls too?
thanks 
Well…if they can lock the green balls, then they can also drop them into the field.
They can handle both types of balls and score them like they meet to…
i was thinking about loaging up our dumper in a way that you get a layer of med. balls then fill the gaps with small balls then add a layer of med. balls exc.
but how will you know that the footballs will all fit flat at the bottom?
and not at weird angles?
(unless you chake the bot around a bit ;))
does anyone know if scoring a medium ball in the boals counts as on the other side?
Putting a medium ball in the goal is stupid unless you are blocking up your own goal, but yes it does count for points. But why would you want to block up your own goal?