As trays become stronger and faster (we’ve now seen 11 cubes high), they’re also longer and more precarious. The lower the resting angle, the easier it is to intake but the harder your robot becomes to maneuver. Lower resting angles also make you more susceptible to losing cubes off of the top of your tray. With a now semi-standard 9 cube 3 stage tray for example, what is the optimal resting angle for intaking cubes that combines cube security with intake efficiency?
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I don’t know the angle, but it would probably be optimal where the tray clears the lower towers to free mobility.
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Please move this discussion to VRC Tower Takeover, as your post is in relation with that topic.
This is an interesting question that I’ll admit not having given much thought to. I think your question depends on what you can measure with your two qualities, and what you value between the two.
Obviously, intake efficiency is going to be extremely important as the season goes on, and I think this should be the main goal in mind while regarding this question.
Ultimately, comfort with a robot’s maneuverability should be decided by the robot’s driver. The stack should tilt back as far as the driver is comfortable with it being being tilted, meaning to say the driver is able to compensate for the stack’s tilt. I say this because the design of the tray(etc. how snug the cubes are, protection on the sides) should be what minimizes the number of cubes that fall off it. This way, you can effectively drive the robot while having the maximum intake efficiency. To answer your question, I don’t believe there is one set optimal tray angle.
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I certainly don’t have all the answers here, but I’ll try to add something to the discussion.
Advantages of steeper tray angles (~45 degrees):
- Easier to maneuver the robot around towers, stacks, and other robots
- Depositing stacks in the scoring zones may be faster (although this depends greatly on your robot’s design, and you’re only going to be depositing a stack 1-2 times which makes this mostly irrelevant)
- Simple trays (that score by discharging cubes out the top into towers) can score higher towers
- Center of gravity will be closer to the center of the robot’s wheelbase, which could help reduce tipping
Advantages of shallower trays (~30 degrees):
- Cubes are less likely to be knocked out, as gravity will be working to keep them in the tray
- Intakes need not be as powerful (as they aren’t working against gravity), so they could potentially be built with 1 motor instead of 2
- Tray can be used as a “poor man’s wallbot” - drivers can use the tray to strategically block opponent robots (although this carries a significant risk of the robot tipping on its side)
- Center of gravity is lower to the ground, which could help reduce tipping
I personally think steep-angle is the way to go on this. 1-motor intakes are difficult to build anyway, so intake power won’t be a huge concern. Well-built trays should be able to resist cubes falling out the sides, and a software anti-tip (or mechanical fold-out wheels) could help maintain stability. Also, the “reduce tray angle to become a wallbot” feature could be mapped to a controller button and only be activated when needed.
Most trays we’ve seen have been at a ~45deg angle, and I don’t see any reason for that to change. Personally, I think these trays will remain steep throughout the season.
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Great information thanks for the addition. I am curious which is better for holding cubes in, steep or shallow. As you say shallow uses gravity to hold cubes in but the force of the cubes on top of each other is lessened. Steep is assisted slightly less by solely gravity but the force of let’s say the top cube on the second cube from the top, second on third etc. is greater. Has anybody tested this?
Club/being able to build isn’t open for another 3 weeks so I’m stuck cadding and asking for help with this stuff
As low as you can before you find trouble driving
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But what about center of gravity tho?
You need extra weight at the front of the robot when tray is down, but then you need to have counterweight on the back when you raise the tray.
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You don’t really drive much once you’ve raised the tray so it doesn’t matter, and if you have your tray at the right angle the center of gravity should be almost in the middle of your bot, especially if u add stabilizers out the back
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