2014 control ideas
 

Anyone have any ideas on how to obtain the ball this year? Because with the 20" extension limit you just barely get past the apex of the ball. I was thinking a forklift w/ belts to suck up the ball but I would like to know some other ideas.

Re: 2014 control ideas
 

There a really nice thread on vacuum pickup. I'm leaning toward this. http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=124351

I also have a few ideas based on the compression of the game piece.

Re: 2014 control ideas
 

To kinda quote Doc Brown from Back to the Future: "You aren't thinking [three] dimensionally."

Take a moment to draw the ball next to a robot with bumpers and you'll see that the 20" extension gets you more like 2/3 of the ball rather than just 1/2. The ball has a 25 inch diameter, so even with a 3" bumper between your frame perimeter and the ball, that still puts the 20" distance a solid 4" past the center of the ball. When you do this in three dimensions (actually, the two dimensional projection in the plane normal to the frame perimeter and through the center of the ball is sufficient), you'll find that the bumper contacts the ball rather low at a point that causes significant intrusion of the ball toward your frame, so you can grab even more of it.

Re: 2014 control ideas
 

Since the game objects are so similar to 2008. There's this:

http://www.thebluealliance.com/team/1114/2008

Any design Ideas you might have can probably be found on a robot from 2008.