Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

What will we see more teams doing? Feeder station or floor pick up?

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

Great robots will be able to do both.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

You will most likely see more teams only be able to be fed from the feeder station. However, your question makes it seem like a robot who can pick up from the ground won't be able to be fed from the feeder station. The advantage of having floor pickup is the discs on the ground during auton and picking up missed shots. If there aren't missed shots in a match, most teams will still be able to be fed from their feeder. And if it is found that picking up off the ground isn't worth it, the teams with pickup mechanisms can simply deactivate or remove them from their robot completely. If it is found that they are super helpful, teams without them are going to have a harder time to adapt.

In conclusion, more teams will be going to feeder stations, picking up from the floor has a good chance to be a game winner (auton).

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

I concur with Glenn.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

I think we'll see more robots feeding, though if it's like past years we might see a good amount of both. My team has chosen hand-feeding to save time, weight, and complexity on our robot.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

Floor pickup. Every missed frisbee will end up on the ground, so the floor will be littered frisbees.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

And some great robots won't.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

I don't think it is necessary for this game, but the ability to do so can increase your autonomous scoring capabilities, this is the reason we chose to add a floor loader. I don't think we will be using it that often in a match, but we won't know for sure until we see some actual gameplay.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

If you have floor pickup, can't you just human load off the floor?

Autonomous is the main reason to have a floor loader. Human load only robots will still be great this year, probably better than 2011.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

There's one major problem I see with that, mostly time. From what I can see of most teams' designs, they'd have to back up after picking up a disc to let the feeder drop another one for them. Having to back up and then line back up for each disc will take far too long. It's possible to avoid this, but I think most teams will simply have a dedicated loading device.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

Here is some video of two floor pickup systems.
Team 1493, The Falcons, had one of the most amusing systems.
Team 20, The Rocketeers, had one of the best.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EX_oYPh8kI

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

We do feeder station exclusively.
Shouldn't this be a poll?

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

Why wouldn't the human player just push 4 frisbees through the slot while the robot is on it's way there, so they're sitting on the floor waiting for the robot to drive across them and pick them up when the robot gets there? Seemed to work pretty well for 2056 in Toronto.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

While this is a completely valid strategy that my team (and I'm sure many others) discussed, there are a few issues.

-- When you're dropping them onto the ground, it's quite doubtful they will fall in a nice line for pickup. They might flip upside down, be stacked on top of each other, etc. This could be a problem.

-- Since you're dropping them from the edge of the field, they'll be right next to a wall. Some teams have trouble picking up right next to a wall, but this might work fine for others.

-- Say the robot that's going to receive the four discs is just finishing their current shots (let's call this Robot A), and about to head back for more. The Human Player begins dropping them on the ground, so that all four will be there and ready when the robot returns. The Human Player finishes, and the robot is nearly to the feeder station, but suddenly an opponent robot appears from under the pyramid (let's call this Robot B), and pins Robot A to the wall. Robot B can only hold the pin for a few seconds before a penalty, but in that short time frame, another robot with ground pickup on Robot B's alliance (Let's call this Robot C) drives over, and grabs the Frisbees. Robot B releases the pin, Robot C scores 12 easy points, and Robot A is now forced to wait for four more Frisbees.

-- On a similar note from the previous point, you really don't even need Robot B in the equation. Assuming the Human Player starts dropping discs before Robot A arrives, Robot C could just run over and grab a disc or two before Robot A gets to the feeder station. Robot C gets easy points, and slows down the other alliance, killing two birds with one stone.

If your pickup is really really fast, defense is sparse, and your human player is competent, it would probably work. Otherwise, it's a safe and easy bet to just design a ramp to intake discs directly.

Re: Floor pickup Vs. feeder station
 

Ground pickup > Feeder pickup

My proof? Go ask 2056.