Shadowfax: Lord of Horses, Lord of Robots
Joustball is a mix of the honor and chivalry of mediæval jousting and the anything-goes mentality of Nerf battles. Each match consists of three rounds, during which robots can score by hitting the opponent with the lance or Nerf balls, shooting Nerf balls into the opposing goal, or by winning the race to the other side of the field. Each robot carries a head unit with an IR beacon; if the head falls off (or is unhorsed by enemy action), the match is over and the opposing side scores points.
Shadowfax was designed and built to be primarily a shooting robot. For this reason, we used two flywheels for more power, and shot low to the ground to get extra speed while remaining within the constraints of the game. As a result, Shadowfax was the fastest shooting robot at the competition, shooting fastest both in terms of ball speed and in terms of time to shoot all five balls.
Lancing the opponents was accomplished with a system of IR detectors and a lance mounted on a pan-tilt mechanism. The IR detectors had active filters with a sharp cutoff to accurately detect the opposing robot's head, and were used to deploy the lance when the opponent was detected. The primary design constraint here was to score points in every round by recording a touch, rather than unhorsing the opponent. For reasons of both simplicity and aggressiveness, Shadowfax drives entirely along the dividing wall between the two robots.
The resulting strategy was as follows. In round one, the robot races to the opposite side of the field, scoring a lance touch if possible. The shooter is then spun up in anticipation of round two. As soon as round two begins, all five balls were shot into the opponent's goal, and then the robot drove back quickly. Five more balls were then received from the reloading station; in round three, the robot drove back across the field, and shot four of these balls at the enemy robot. One ball was saved for a possible overtime.
This strategy earned Shadowfax second place in the tournament, and first in our hearts.
Shadowfax was designed and built to be primarily a shooting robot. For this reason, we used two flywheels for more power, and shot low to the ground to get extra speed while remaining within the constraints of the game. As a result, Shadowfax was the fastest shooting robot at the competition, shooting fastest both in terms of ball speed and in terms of time to shoot all five balls.
Lancing the opponents was accomplished with a system of IR detectors and a lance mounted on a pan-tilt mechanism. The IR detectors had active filters with a sharp cutoff to accurately detect the opposing robot's head, and were used to deploy the lance when the opponent was detected. The primary design constraint here was to score points in every round by recording a touch, rather than unhorsing the opponent. For reasons of both simplicity and aggressiveness, Shadowfax drives entirely along the dividing wall between the two robots.
The resulting strategy was as follows. In round one, the robot races to the opposite side of the field, scoring a lance touch if possible. The shooter is then spun up in anticipation of round two. As soon as round two begins, all five balls were shot into the opponent's goal, and then the robot drove back quickly. Five more balls were then received from the reloading station; in round three, the robot drove back across the field, and shot four of these balls at the enemy robot. One ball was saved for a possible overtime.
This strategy earned Shadowfax second place in the tournament, and first in our hearts.
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