Everyone will be paired with at least one pushbot at some point in the In the Zone season. This may be due to lift problems or new teams etc… Now the challenge is what will you have them do?
I think a pushbot can play effective defense against a team on the other alliance attempting to bring their mobile goals in for scoring. They just have to get in the way, not necessarily push the other team around. Also if a team has a pushbot on purpose, or you choose them for an alliance, they can have their autonomous try to defend and basically screw up the opponents autonomous by going into their most likely scoring positions in autonomous. They can also defend against robots attempting to use the loader for the match loads
What other strategies can you think of for teams that either only build a pushbot, or teams that end up having a pushbot?
There’s the whole tipping strategy that they might be able to achieve, but I think the better thing would be (1) move cones for you, (2) moves cones defensively, or (3) get the parking bonus?
The push bot does have quite a few abilities in this years game, which includes effective offensive and defensive strategies. Here are a few I could think up:
Have some concaved lexan guide things that can push the mobile goal, which can be scored in the 5 point zone. I know it’s not much, but it’s still points.
The robot can play the sketchy strategy where it knocks down all the cones on the field, but this is only an effective strategy if you have an alliance partner that can pick knocked over cones. Refer to this thread: https://vexforum.com/t/legal-strategies/41073/1
A push bot can just block the opposite alliance
Get the parking bonus. It’s not much, but it’s better than nothing
However, a push bot has limited capabilities this year, when compared to Starstruck. It’s better to build the clawbot than to stick with a push bot in my opinion.
Well it may be touchy for push bots due to the rule SG 9 having robots only allowed to have a single cone in possession at a time (Not including mobile goals) Though i can see the use in having a push bot.
Based on what I’m reading, it sounds like my pushbot design (attached) isn’t legal, so that sucks. From what I can tell about the rules, it seems like a good pushbot design would basically be a c-channel square that is low to the ground so it can push cones without tipping them, or maybe a square higher up to tip cones over. I don’t really think that pushbots will be very viable this year though, it seems like GDC wanted people to actually design a robot this year. Is pushing opponent robots allowed? Like, is it legal for a high torque pushbot to push around the opposing teams?
Maybe a team could design a “Support” type robot that pushes the movable goal around to the rest of its alliance to make scoring faster. Maybe that could be a use of a push bot type design.
True, that would probably be the only legal use for a concave pushing surface though. Something like our starstruck robot might work good for pushing mobile goals, especially if it has 10 torque motors.
The only problem i can see from a push bot is being too slow to be that helpful, this game seems like it will revolve around being the first one to get to the cones. But if done right the push bot could be really helpful in scoring. But it may get difficult to do in the long run.
