I hope that this brief will be of some use to VRC and VRCC enthusiasts. I’ve tried to keep it short, clear and simple.
It would have been nice to make a structurally complete CAD model, but there are probably many ways of physically implementing this concept, and I don’t want to limit the design possibilities, or do useless work that could be laughed down (I’m a tired over-worked college student). I can post or message anybody who’s interested some quick sketches if needed.
I’ve designed and built quite a few competition robots, including ones that are high-efficiency, multi-ability, or attempted game-breakers. Several have won competition awards, at regional championships and VEX Worlds. I have a reasonable amount of experience through pain to know what is and what isn’t feasible with VEX, and I promise you that this design plan is completely possible. Have fun!
Sounds like an interesting idea! The only problem I can think of is, what if the other team has a robot that can defend against the loader, effectively starving the stacker of any objects?
I have to agree, it’s interesting and potentially game changing, but how do you plan on stacking 30 sacks on the high goal during match play? It’s difficult enough to stack 15 by hand on the ground, never mind twice that by a robot on the high goal. Perhaps I’m not envisioning it correctly?
Also what stops someone from just knocking down the sacks off the goal in the last 10 seconds?
As for the stacking a bunch of sacks issue, i don’t see any easy way around it. You probably need 30 as your maximum and whatever stays is what you get for the match. As for preventing others from pushing your stack, i would find making the robot extremely heavy is your only answer. So might as well make a wall bot which caps the center goals and scores in the high goal with those 30 sacks. Theoretically, if you can do that every time and score 10 sacks on the high goal, you will never lose a 2vs1 (assuming no one blocks your position, and not including overflow). As an extra safeguard, you might as well add a parking extension for extra points