Battery Buggy B

[windu34]

Battery Buggy: Teams will construct a vehicle that uses electrical energy as its sole means of propulsion, quickly travels a specified distance, and stops as close as possible to the Target Point.

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Past Threads: 2009, 2010, 2018

[SPP SciO]

First glance at the rules seems to suggest that last year's vehicle would be legal for this year. If competition were tomorrow, most teams could take their battery buggy & practice log off the shelf and get scoring runs with no modifications. Of course, the scoring bonus will lead to much narrower vehicles I'm assuming - maybe some "motorcycle" designs?

Three pages of Battery Buggy rules this year! I've never seen such a thing - I guess it's a luxury of digital vs. paper rules manuals.

First specific question (likely many to follow) - is it safe to assume "wheel setting" in the required practice log parameters refers to axle rotations, or is there something more I'm missing?

[sciolyperson1]

I'm going to assume wheel setting is however you and your partner wound the wheel. It could be you counting the amount of rotations, amount of rotations of a gear, distance, position of the wingnut on the axle, or whatever system you and your partner use.

[windu34]

I'm going to assume wheel setting is however you and your partner wound the wheel. It could be you counting the amount of rotations, amount of rotations of a gear, distance, position of the wingnut on the axle, or whatever system you and your partner use.

Unofficially, I would agree with this interpretation

[M017]

First glance at the rules seems to suggest that last year's vehicle would be legal for this year. If competition were tomorrow, most teams could take their battery buggy & practice log off the shelf and get scoring runs with no modifications. Of course, the scoring bonus will lead to much narrower vehicles I'm assuming - maybe some "motorcycle" designs?

Three pages of Battery Buggy rules this year! I've never seen such a thing - I guess it's a luxury of digital vs. paper rules manuals.

First specific question (likely many to follow) - is it safe to assume "wheel setting" in the required practice log parameters refers to axle rotations, or is there something more I'm missing?

What is the scoring bonus? (I haven't gotten a chance to look at the rules yet)

[Unome]

First glance at the rules seems to suggest that last year's vehicle would be legal for this year. If competition were tomorrow, most teams could take their battery buggy & practice log off the shelf and get scoring runs with no modifications. Of course, the scoring bonus will lead to much narrower vehicles I'm assuming - maybe some "motorcycle" designs?

Three pages of Battery Buggy rules this year! I've never seen such a thing - I guess it's a luxury of digital vs. paper rules manuals.

First specific question (likely many to follow) - is it safe to assume "wheel setting" in the required practice log parameters refers to axle rotations, or is there something more I'm missing?

What is the scoring bonus? (I haven't gotten a chance to look at the rules yet)

Cans, as in 2017 Electric Vehicle. A high-scoring vehicle would curve between the cans, which can be closer together at the discretion of the currently competing team for a higher bonus. See 6.b, 5.g, and 7.e.

[builder83]

First glance at the rules seems to suggest that last year's vehicle would be legal for this year. If competition were tomorrow, most teams could take their battery buggy & practice log off the shelf and get scoring runs with no modifications. Of course, the scoring bonus will lead to much narrower vehicles I'm assuming - maybe some "motorcycle" designs?

Three pages of Battery Buggy rules this year! I've never seen such a thing - I guess it's a luxury of digital vs. paper rules manuals.

First specific question (likely many to follow) - is it safe to assume "wheel setting" in the required practice log parameters refers to axle rotations, or is there something more I'm missing?

What is the scoring bonus? (I haven't gotten a chance to look at the rules yet)

Cans, as in 2017 Electric Vehicle. A high-scoring vehicle would curve between the cans, which can be closer together at the discretion of the currently competing team for a higher bonus. See 6.b, 5.g, and 7.e.

Yeah I saw the electric vehicle. Except they could electronically adjust steering. Manually (mechanically) adjusting steering on the spot will be the challenge I think.

[MadCow2357]

I think I'll be using a dial caliper for steering. Do you guys think the bonus points will be significant enough that they will probably be required for you to medal?

[builder83]

I think I'll be using a dial caliper for steering. Do you guys think the bonus points will be significant enough that they will probably be required for you to medal?

Probably. Figure the difference between shooting through a 20 cm gap compared to a 40 cm gap is 10 points. Equivalent to being off by 5 cm. Accuracy will be much more difficult. Speed not much of a factor. Dial caliper or something like it may be good. Adjusting for steering and distance I think I need 20 minutes instead of 8...

[windu34]

I think I'll be using a dial caliper for steering. Do you guys think the bonus points will be significant enough that they will probably be required for you to medal?

This will highly depend on what state you are in and the competitiveness of the tournament. Being able to successfully do the bonus will give you a way larger margin of error to perform poorly in accuracy compared to a device that cant do the bonus. The bonus is weighted EXTREMELY heavily, 250% more than it was in EV 2017. If you want to be competitive at even a moderately uncompetitive tournament (example Florida States), you shouldn't even consider not doing the bonus. However, I am sure there are a few very uncompetitive tournaments across the country that will have non-bonus devices taking medals.