In many of the matches I’ve seen, robots that stack cubes are primary targets for being pushed. To prevent this, could a robot have standoffs of various sizes around the back and sides of the base? This will make it harder for opposing robots to push because there isn’t a flat area to push against.
this likely wont deter most opponents. also if you have room to have standoffs sticking out of the back of your robot, you’re not taking advantage of the space you have as much as you should be. to stop pushing from the back or front, you can simply apply a motor brake or hold to your drive motors, but for an all omni drive, preventing side to side shoving is more difficult. I had an idea to attach an omni wheel to the center of your chassis, like in an h drive configuration, but don’t power this wheel, in fact, don’t let it spin at all. make it fixed. that way, you’re robot can drive forward as usual, have a fixed turning point, and resist side to side pushing.
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Not necessarily, because then all the force of the impact between the two bots would travel through that one standoff, which would actually be more damaging than just presenting a flat surface. The force being transferred will still be the same, albeit less spread out.
Also the refs wouldn’t allow it due to posing a risk of entanglement
That’s actually a genius idea.
I have no idea if it works, it may mess with your movement in ways I haven’t predicted, but to my understanding it should be ok.
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Translation: if you’re being pushed, push back. If they’re pushing you from the side, then either accept you’re being pushed (and have a plan for how to handle that), or have a robot that can’t be pushed sideways.
I don’t think OP’s idea poses a risk of entanglement, but as you pointed out, it’s probably not going to have much of an effect to reduce the effect of pushing.
In general, you can assume that people will try to push you; the challenging part is figuring out how you’re going to handle being pushed, both from a mechanical and a strategy point of view.
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You may be better off having a plate attached to your sides with rubber bands between those and your chassis. When the opponent rams you, the bands compress and absorb some of the shock. Dont know how effective it would be, but would take up little space.
You could always just make a 6 wheel drive with bling wheels in the middle to accomplish the same thing but leave more space in the center of the bot.
yeah, but now your dealing with a 6 wheel drive, which can be annoying, and take up more space imo. you could even use a small omni in the center to minimize space taken up.
You could use a linear-slide break (look at Kepler Electronic’s World’s reveal for TP).
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Each side of the chassis is only 1 hole wider with a bling wheel.
Ok so locked omnis are not called “Bling wheels” and were invented long before the first ever reveal that called locked omnis “bling wheels.” Might seem like I am making a big deal about this, but I am simply annoyed by terms such as “danny lift,” “goliath intake,” or “bling wheels”
Now for the real point of this post. If you REALLY didn’t want to be pushed you would need to have angled ramps on the flat sides of your robot so that the pushing force is transferred up and pulls the pusher’s wheels up the ramp.
Now I do not see much defense happening this season unless it turns out that full stacks will be completed with plenty of time left in a match. In which case towers are the main area where defense will be played.
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There are multiple matches where defensive play is seen. Here is one example: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KpAinfk-HDE
I do like the angled ramp idea. Are you referring to a wedge?
From a driving perspective, you could drive opposite of the push and go around, rather than make build changes. As for side pushing, traction wheels would probably work well.
Hey! That was my idea I gave you! (But it was a good idea…)
I personally am a fan of locked omnis (“Bling Drive” is just too non-descriptive of a name compared to “locked omnis,” which I still have to explain sometimes), even without a 6 wheel drive.
It does throw off your center of rotation quite a bit, but I try to position my wheels to use that to my advantage. Just takes some driving practice to get used to.
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It was!? lol I honestly don’t remember, I discovered it by mistake when I was building my chassis, but it sounds like something you’d say and I’d forget.
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Is it easy to be pushed with an x-drive? Haven’t had the chance to build and test yet.
I haven’t built one competitively to test, but I think you could out-maneuver defense with an X drive better than directly fight it.
You’d be easier to push than a locked Omni drive, but harder than an H-drive. You can also fight pushing with all 4 motors if need be.
Tbh i dont really mind using bling wheels, since they are somewhat descriptive of the appearance of the wheel, so i wouldn’t consider it a senseless name like Danny lift or goliath intake.
if you told a team who knew nothing about terminology that you have a bling drive they’d just be confused, but if you told them you were using locked omnis, they could infer that you have omni wheels that are locked.
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