So yesterday was my states (VA) competition, and my team qualified for Worlds (we got States Champion, Skills Champion, and Excellence). Currently, our robot has a chain bar that is attached to a 3 stage cascading lift. It can stack a maximum of 11 cones. It’s similar to 929U’s old robot in terms of how it stacks.
Would investing in making a new robot with an RD4B be worth it for Worlds? I think it would, but I want to know the communities opinion. Also, we are a middle school team.
Trust me, a dr4b will be a necessity for worlds. It’s definitely worth the time to put effort into that as many other teams that are highly competitive will be running those and a fast mini 4b or chain bar to internally stack.
If yoy can afford to keep the current robot intact, can build quickly and can dedicate enough time for programming and driving practice, sure, go for it, it’s a great exercise and further learning experience.
But answer honestly within your team, what capabilities would you gain and whether you’d be able to really use them. Would it stack higher? How often woud you actually stack that high and how often would you need to stack higher to win?
Would it field faster? Even though your drivers would need to get used to that and programmers automate some movements?
Our current robot excels at fielding, but it can’t match load too well. Every time we fight a RD4B/scissor with a good match load we usually lose. I think a RD4B with a claw instead of goliath intake could field just as fast though, and probably with a higher stack, and it can do match load. Also, our current robot struggles with stationary goals because of our huge chainbar.
I used to coach in the county as well, your coach should hear about it in about a month or so. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, let your coach handle it. I’d say focus on making an awesome robot.
Another Virginia team here. You guys were just awesome this weekend. A well-deserved win. I was running the skills field and got to witness your awesome programming skills run! And thanks for triple qualifying!
I can’t really comment, since I have not seen your robot in action.
What I can say is - for MS, your main competition will come from China and Singapore teams.
Maybe you might want to take a look at their robots and then decide where do you stand when playing against them.
To me, it all depends if you have enough time to build, program, perfect, and practice with the new bot. I would just practice more and more with it and make minimal changes. In my opinion, if your robot can consistently stack 11, then I would keep it and just practice. But in the end, its all up to if you can do the steps above in a week or two to have adequate driving time.
If you are just concerned about doing well in the competition without spending too much time, it is something to think about.
However, I would personally recommend rebuilding. Even if you don’t have the time to perfect it and get it on the level of your previous robot, you learn a lot more, and that is the worst scenario. On the other hand, you could end up being way better at worlds and have a very strong chance at getting to the dome. (*Note, it is more enjoyable to have a working robot at worlds than try rebuilding and fail, so decide wisely)
If you are planning to win, I don’t think there’s a way around build a DR4B. (Unless maybe there’s some good cheese strat)
In my opinion, since you are so close to states, nationals, and worlds, I would probably spend time practicing and not rebuilding so you can be as reliable and consistent as possible. A robot that scores 50 10/10 of the time is better than a robot that scores 100 5/10 of the time.
Hopefully this helps
-[TVA]Connor
Oh didn’t realize u guys haven’t played stare yet. I would recommend keeping it together at stare and giving it your best shot. Also you should check how many positions qualify u to worlds if u aren’t already. At Texas state, u just have to get into semis to qualify through competition.
I would say that is definitely possible even if your current robot is not that good. Driver skill and competence alone can make even a bad robot viable in competition. I would recommend keeping it together for state and just getting as much practice time as possible and perfecting what u can.
U can think about rebuilding for worlds. Got another like 2 months for that.
