Do you guys have any oppinions on the Push Back robot this year?
I think it’s great! It seems to perform better than most hero bots in the recent past, but is still balanced enough that teams who have some experience and build their own bots will usually do better. Additionally, from what I’ve seen in my very quick skim of the instructions, it looks complicated enough that it will be effective in teaching students that build it more advanced building concepts.
It even uses SCREW JOINTS for the wheels!!!
The current year’s “hero bot” build appears to meet all the requirements of a good pre-designed trainer design for a first-year/novice team to use to get started with robotics:
- Uses parts from a V5 Starter Kit, with no cutting of pieces required
- Provides a brand new team with good examples of build technique and build quality so they can learn the V5 building system.
- Introduces a variety of mechanical concepts, including gear ratios and some ideas for unique parts (in this case, use of chain and flaps for an intake).
- Plays game at a (deliberately) mediocre level so that a team is inpsired to improve, either by modifying the design, or for a more advanced team, to start the Engineering Design Process and build their own design, possibly but not necessarily inspired by the herobot trainer.
I feel like this is a robot that showed me everything that I did wrong in High stakes and “laughed at me” if you will
Christian is cooking
I think the new hero bot is great, Its easy to build, and it can still be competitive in a tournament.
It’s a little bit hard when you have to order more pieces that you don’t have because your dad bought the competition super kit.
I still like it though, It’s a little price to pay for getting 8 motors
You’re correct that the game objects are made from HDPE, a material commonly used in the manufacturing of Milk Bottles, and other similar bottles for liquids.
This is for good reason!
Many of the hollow, symmetrically shaped objects from the past few years have been made from this material because it is one of the preferential materials used in Blow Molding.
Blow Molding is one of our preferred methods for manufacturing game pieces, especially when we put a lot of them on the field. Blow Molding is significantly cheaper than injection molding, especially in quantity, and is faster in many cases too. The wall thickness of the blocks is significantly thicker than that of a milk bottle, so they will not collapse on themselves nearly as easily as a milk bottle, and the geometric shape of the object lends some help in ensuring a strong object.
The competition has grown so large that we are making over 500,000 Blocks this year – if these had to be injection molded, that increased cost would have HAD to be handed down to the customer, making the kit significantly more expensive than it already is. We also would have been much more strapped for budget elsewhere in the kit, and may not have been able to commit as much towards the other elements on the field. Its likely the game would have suffered as a result of that.
While the HDPE is soft, and may be prone to scratches throughout the year, it is an incredibly DURABLE material. It’s very recyclable, and (as it’s used in food service) is widely considered a VERY safe material.
And even if one is damaged beyond repair, we included (6x) extras of each color in the kit!
Oh, that’s why there is too many blocks on the field…
Your right, but, I know you said this in the game reveal that since they are “octiballs”, the rickishay (I am terrible at spelling) will be different each time. However, what if the octoballs get “too scratched” and causes even more inconsistency as the tournament progresses? That’s my main question. What if the balls became too scratched, practically “sanded down “ on the seams, where you made them using the mold that you said earlier, and bounces around in the intake of the 2024-26 HeroBot, or doesn’t get aligned on the corners of the “Octoballs”, and therefore, the it bounces out of the intake to the left or right, instead of the tube, and damages the intake.
Cont.d (sorry this is so long) Since the intake is broken, and let’s say you chose terrible partners in the bracket because everyone knows, when you come short barely, you always get picked last, or around last, and your team has no chance to progress, because your team that you chose is bad, and looses like you think you would eventually.
This happens too often, in my opinion. The VEX purchasing model looks something like this:
- Beginner/New user—> build the Herobot Trainer —> buy the Starter Kit
- Established team—> no need to build Herobot Trainer —> buy the Super Kit.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear enough in the ordering (for someone brand new) that your can’t build the Herobot trainer from a superkit, and/or many people assume that the Super Kit is simply an add-on to the Starter kit.
@bkahl : Any chance VEX could offer some additional SKU’s:
- Classroom/Competition add-on kit which includes all the parts to turn a classroom starter kit into a competition starter kit (except that the clawbot structure would still be steel)
- Competition add-on kit which includes all the parts to turn a competition starter kit into a competition super kit.
- A “deluxe” competition superkit which includes the Competition Starter Kit plus the Competition add-on kit combined together, along with additional wording on the catalogue pages to help a novice know which kit to buy for a first-year team who wants to build the Herobot trainer but have lots of parts for growth.
Just trying to read through your posts a bit, and your comment about not progressing. It looks like you’re expecting too much from a “hero bot” trainer. I see from your profile that this is not your first year (last year was), so it’s time for your team to be thinking beyond pre-designed builds. In our organization, an established team might use the “herobot” for their first competition of the season (in August) just because it’s quick, then get started on a competitive design, or figure out some serious upgrades to the season trainer build. VEX has a resource to help you work through the design process here:
https://v5rc-kb.recf.org/hc/en-us/articles/9628278280215-Engineering-Design-Process
Here’s some of the problem, in the product description (my highlight):
“any new team” should NOT be in this product description, because we expect a new team to build the “herobot” trainer. It’s only on the V5 build pages that you see that a “competition starter kit” is needed for each season’s build.
Never really a good look criticizing your teammates in a public forum. You may think you’re making yourself look good, but it’s really not a good look for you or for them. Keep things positive in public and address team issues in private.
Likewise here; you seem to be looking for external sources to blame if things don’t go the way you think they “should”, on top of the implausibility of the scenario you are describing.
woof - I missed this while skimming the post originally… my apologies…
@Mentor_355U is right.
This post, specifically the quoted part above, is not appropriate for the forum. Please be better next time.
This is feedback we have received before –
Hopefully it’s something we can better integrate into the next generation of kits, whenever those become real things!
Last year, you were a rookie, so your effort, although admirable, might not have been well received. But this season is new, and now you have some experience to go along with your enthusiasm. Perhaps you can encourage your teammates, your mentors, and your organization, to “take off the training wheels” this year and break out of the “all the teams in West Virginia” mold. A first step is to brainstorm all the pros and cons of what you’ve built so far (documenting this stuff in your engineering notebook) and work on some major and innovative improvements.