I was wondering about ways the flags could be scored with balls. So far I have seen robots with ball launchers that are fixed to the base. Why don’t teams just put the launchers on a lift so that the robot could drive right next to the flags and shoot with a really low chance of missing?
I believe because the robots are required to be behind the white line in the image below when shooting balls
You can’t expand vertically unless your in the expansion zone, which isn’t anywhere near the flags, thus most robots are using flywheels low to the ground so they can shoot while not in the expansion zone.
Yup. Not sure if it’s most robots, but that wouldn’t surprise me; and I think there was a survey and it was more than 50%.
For clarity, you can shoot from anywhere. You just can’t expand vertically to shoot from high up unless you’re in (defined by part of the robot touching) the expansion zone.
Well, those that aren’t are using punchers and catapults which still are low to the ground, but I guess I probably should have clarified.
What if a robot accidentally expands vertically when not in expansion zone during autonomous mode?
<SG2> covers expansion in detail.
Since you are expected to be responsible for the actions of your robot, even in autonomous mode, there should be NO accidental vertical expansion outside of the expansion zone, even in autonomous mode.