Sniper/Turret Bot

VEX Robotics Competition Discussion VRC > Change Up (20/21)
#1

So, I’ve been thinking about this game for a while. I’m not a big fan of it because there are very few goals and objectives and it seems too straight forward. So, in an attempt to get away from the standard snail
bot and lifted tray, I wanted to entertain the idea of a sniper/turret bot.

What if you could have a bot that could shoot the balls into the goals. Now, of course, this would be a challenge because you would need to have an elaborate and painstaking coding process and you would have to build it to accurately shoot massive balls at the backboard. But, if you could get it to work and accurately shoot balls into goals, you would have a massive advantage over teams, especially in the auton.

For starters, you would be able to mess up the opponents auton by shooting a ball into their goal before they can score. And its legal since the rules state that ROBOTS can not touch the foam tiles on the opposite side, not balls. You would also be able to score in goals before your opponent can get there, at least in the beginning of the game. After about 30 seconds, you would go around and empty/ shuffle the balls in the goals as usual, since they would most likely be full and obviously you can’t score as a sniper if its full. Then the final thing, it would be a ridiculously boss moment if you could shoot a buzzer beater at the last second into a goal across the field and win the game because of it.

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#2

That is definitely an interesting idea, however it would be extremely hard to design and to drive. I think you should take a look in the rules and see if shooting the balls in the opponent’s goal actually allowed.

1 Like
#3

a fun concept, but not very competitive.

this is incorrect, you cannot interfere with anything on the other side of the auton line, there are no loopholes for you to go though.

the spinup time on the flywheel would be very significant, these balls are light, but they’re much heavier than turning point balls.

5 Likes
#4

Da Rules

It says here that balls can’t touch your opponents foam tiles, so if you make it in the goal is it good?

#5

nope. You would be interfering with your opponent’s autonomous, which is illegal.

3 Likes
#6

This is in fact illegal as per <SG2> and <SG7>
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As a general concept, I think this idea is vastly inferior to snail bots and tray bots for reasons you already stated:

These balls are not smooth spheres, meaning that unless you can orient them the same way before every shot, then you will have inconsistent trajectories. Furthermore, if all of the goals are already full, then you have a motor or two on your bot that are not helping you for most of the match, which limits your capabilities and will make you slower than the other bots on the field.

And none of this touches on the fact that you’re trying to shoot a 6.3" object into a 7" hole from presumably 10 feet away which is not an easy shot.

4 Likes
#7

I am by no means sold on a flywheel type design for this game and have very little faith on it being successful, however I keep seeing this point being made and I find it quite misleading.

When you are shooting a ball into a goal parallel with the ground, your margin of error is actually much bigger than simply the difference between the ball diameter and the goal’s inner diameter. A ball will drop into the goal as long as the center of the sphere is above the goal’s opening. I will note that this applies slightly differently in this shooting case because the ball has more forces acting on it than simply gravity and is able to bounce, etc.

So at best you will have maybe a 7" diameter circle as your target, but to be more reasonable given the things I mentioned above, let’s say a 3-4" circle. This accuracy and precision would certainly be challenging, especially with the size of the balls, but there were many teams in games like NBN who had a managed a tighter spread of shots than this from longer distances, without a useful backboard. So the idea that a team could not make a robot to consistently make these shots seems just a bit unreasonable to me.

Again, I have very little faith in this design for various reasons. I am simply saying this to hopefully provide my insight on a statement I deem to be largely false.

3 Likes
#8

Also having balls leave the field is a concern.

1 Like
#9

Launching balls is illegal, for safety reasons. It was only allowed during Turning Point because there was a net, but speaking from personal experience, I still got hit in the head with a ball multiple times.

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#10

Please cite where that was stated.

#11

It’s not explicitly illegal, but if refs or inspectors deem it to be unreasonably unsafe (which I sincerely hope they wouldn’t do at the inspection table, and rather let it play out for a few matches) then the robot could potentially be stopped from competing

7 Likes
#12

I would not allow it under g3, use common sense. I don’t think it is safe to be shooting balls at high speeds out of your “sniper” bot especially without a net. I don’t think it sounds reasonable for a robot to shoot balls from 12 ft without missing once. And when you miss, it is very likely that you are going to hit a person.

Edit: I meant shooting a projectile at high speeds, not throwing the ball into the goal like the snailbot.

1 Like
#13

Be safe out there. If at any time the Robot operation or Team actions are deemed unsafe or have damaged any Field Elements or Game Objects, the offending Teams may be Disabled and/or Disqualified at the discretion of the Head Referee. The Robot will require re-inspection before it may take the field again."

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#14

Also rule R4, “Robots must be safe.”

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#15

Well technically, if op were to shoot the balls on the auton line, since those are excluded from the no crossing rule, wouldn’t it be legal?

I had this similar idea earlier but I thought the “sketchiness” of it was too much of a risk.

1 Like
#16

While the balls that start on the Auton Line are exempt from rule SG3, shooting them into your opponent’s goal during the auton period would still be illegal.CaptureSG2 states that a robot may not contact an opponent’s Home Zone goal during the Auton period.Capture1 SG7 says that you cannot use balls to do illegal actions. This means that you cannot shoot a ball into your opponent’s goal during auton because it would be illegal for your robot to touch the goal, and balls cannot be used to do illegal actions.

#17

The biggest issue would be missing your shots.

  1. balls would leave the field
  2. if you miss you’re either hitting the refs or the spectators. Hitting a ref is probably an insta dq. Hitting a spectator is also probably an insta dq.
  3. if the balls hit the ground an break your robot will also be dqed and be forced to be a pushbot for the rest of the tournament
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