Collector ideas
 

What are people's collection ideas?

Re: Collector ideas
 

I've seen plunger suction designs on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8tEbK8S7-8

Re: Collector ideas
 

I was thinking of having a short ramp with a low incline which would lead directly to a holding area which is connected to our shooting mechanism.

Re: Collector ideas
 

I can't imagine this would be very easy with your driver standing anywhere between 5-45ish feet away from the robot.

Rollers are king.

- Sunny G.

Re: Collector ideas
 

Possibly a conveyor belt on a slight incline?

^^If anyone recalls, last year FRC Team 1986, Team Titanium, used a mirror above their acquisition system. That might partially alleviate sight problems. Cameras are also always an option.

The biggest problem I see with any acquisition system is properly orienting the Frisbee. Considering the amount of entropy in regards to how the pieces land, are flying, being shot, etc. , I would see a plunger as a very niche device unless you have a different way to orient it after acquisition.

Personally, I think picking up off the ground is a very specialized approach . If you can build a good drive system, that is one that is quick, agile, and maneuverable, then it might make more sense to be hand fed. This could simplify the robot by eliminating a system, and you also won't have to worry about orientation of the Frisbee as much.

My thoughts...

Re: Collector ideas
 

I agree because Team 1986 is just right next door to our team and we have seen their strategies and other things, etc.

Re: Collector ideas
 

This is where my team is leaning. It's also much easier to design something hand fed that will be easier to fix in the event of a catastrophic pyramid fall, which is something that will most assuredly happen this year many times. With a picking up mechanism you have to assume that a robot will land on it at some point and require rebuilding/replacement, which could be a problem at competitions.

Re: Collector ideas
 

As mentioned above, it seems that very few disks will actually be on the field, unless an inaccurate robot strikes. Therefore, our team decided that a collection system was too difficult to consider building, and that it would not be of much use on the field, especially in consideration to how hard it would be to design/build.

The design we did have before scrapping the whole idea consisted of fans and a funnel, using a "plunger" type idea that could turn on and off. As for orienting the frisbee correctly, a simple post on your delivery/loading system would work. It'd move over the top of the frisbee alright, but if the frisbee was flipped over the wrong way it would catch on the bottom rim and (hopefully) be able to flip it over into the correct orientation.

Re: Collector ideas
 

I think that's the main question....
How many frisbees are going to be on the field at any given moment?
The human player stations are so limited in how a frisbee is put on the field that I can't see an "Aim High" scenario where the balls are just ALL OVER the place, despite the relative abundance of frisbees. The frisbees will start to accumalate near the end of the game as the frisbees continue to miss, but I doubt many frisbees will be on the field at any given moment. Until the endgame. Because as we've all seen from Catalyst 2013, the sky will spontaneously start raining frisbees.

Re: Collector ideas
 

The frisbee shooting that I've seen on youtube so far indicates that they are much more likely to make the 2-3 point goals than the basketballs were last year. So don't expect many white frisbees on the field by the end of a high-scoring match.

I can see where having the ability to collect them is better than not, but it's a rather tricky problem with the tiny bot base and the pyramid floor bump.

Nevertheless, I have no doubt that we'll see many wonderful solutions. I won't be coming up with one myself, though. Not electronic enough.