Is anybody using the hero bot for this year to start off your design? Or is everyone just coming up with their own ideas right of the bat? I know it may just be a stress thing because this is my first year… but I still have to wonder. And does anyone have ideas about hanging without using the standard clawbot?
There will be people building hero bots, but in my opinion, hero bots are never a good way to make your robot. The VRC is a way to use problem solving skills to create a robot that you think is best. I think almost everyone is building from their own design because they have unique ideas for the build design and function of their robots. Hero bots will take away that creativity. I would advise you to think about making your own design. If you need inspiration, there is plenty of content readily available on YouTube. I wish you good luck in creating your robot!
Payne Stroud
Team 39232
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If you don’t want to build the hero bot because it’s not good, but you don’t want to design your own bot because that’s too hard, maybe what you need is a V5 Clawbot. The clawbot is competitive, simple, and very popular at the highest level of competition.
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I think you’re overselling this, a bit…
Herobots/Clawbots may be a good way for new teams to start. They can teach how the parts go together, some basic mechanisms, etc. But to call them “competitive” is a stretch, beyond competitions that expressly require them.
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This is almost laughable.
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My apologies for the joke that came across as stupid advice.
Allow me to offer some real advice that may help you design a quality robot that you will be proud of.
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Build quality. One memory I have from when I competed in IQ was when I had spent weeks designing a slapper design for slapshot. I was really proud of my sketches, and that first practice, one of our sister teams got a hold of it. Lo and behold, they started building a similar concept. As you can probably imagine, my robot turned out ok and placed in the top 5 in all of our competitions and they never went to finals. The difference between my robot and theirs was build quality. Square your drivetrain, use two screws when you connect c-channels, and have a strong backbone to build on.
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Do your research. Other teams make YouTube videos that showcase their robots and what makes them successful. Do not “hole-count”, but use these to your advantage. If you see that many teams are using similar mechanisms, then it’s probably a good idea to look into using it yourself. In the context of over under, that means wings, top roller intakes, catapults, and wedges.
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Cad cad cad. Your cad doesn’t need to be pretty. It doesn’t need to be perfect. The advantage of cadding in advance is that it shows you where the holes don’t line up. It shows you where the wheel scrapes against the intake. It shows you that you have no place to put the brain(personal experience). All of these tiny things that make or break a robot are things that can be eradicated by cadding in the preseason.
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Take what you learn from this season and apply it to next season. The best way to improve from season to season is to have a talk with your team. What caused your robot to succeed? What caused your robot to fail? What do you wish you spent more time on? Apply this to your robot designing in the future.
Again, apologies for the joke, and good luck in over under!
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Thanks for all the responses. This answers my question. Honestly the only reason I was starting with the hero bot was because my coach recommended that new people should, or at least get the frame of it done. Again, thank you!
9545T Team