BATMAN, an acronym standing for Bad at Time Management and Names, was Team 484’s 2022 robot and was the team’s comeback bot after the events of 2020 and COVID-19. Like many of the team’s robots, this robot was on west coast drive. The intake operated with two bars of wheels on a string-and-pulley system that allowed it to go up and down. The intake sucked in game pieces and was pulled up into the tower by a motorized belt system. BATMAN was able to score very consistently into the high goal using its shooter, and near the end of the match, it was able to climb onto the second bar using a pair of winch-powered springloaded telescoping arms to score extra points. BATMAN’s most iconic feature was a polycarb cutout of the Batman symbol that free-spun on a bearing.
In Rapid ReactSM, two alliances work to score cargo into the lower and upper hub. The red and blue alliances can pick up their respective game pieces, which are in the form of large, red and blue tennis balls. At the end of the match, robots can go to their respective hangars and climb for additional endgame points. There are four rungs, but robots can only climb to the first or second rung. Once they climb to those bars, they can either stay at that level or traverse to the third and fourth rung. The higher a robot climbs, the more points the robot is awarded. 20 cargo scores and/or 16 hangar points will award a team one ranking point each.
In the 15 second autonomous period, robots can:
- Taxi outside of their starting positions (2 points)
- Collect and score cargo in the upper (4 points) or lower hub (2 points)
- If 5 cargo is scored in autonomous mode, the cargo RP threshold is lowered to 18
Human players during autonomous mode can shoot cargo balls from the human player station into the upper or lower hub to score extra points.
In the teleoperated period, robots can:
- Collect and score cargo in the upper (2 points) or lower hub (1 point)
- Interact with the hangar by climbing or traversing the rungs (4, 6, 10, to 15 points)
The alliance with the most points wins the match! The game manual can be found here.