FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

bal·lis·ta
bəˈlistə/

noun: ballista; plural noun: ballistae; plural noun: ballistas

a catapult used in ancient warfare for hurling large stones.



Our students are very proud of their robot and their mentors are very proud of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53EK0d_QBFw

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Easily our best robot to date. And weve been to Worlds for the past two years, so do the math. We will add a blue banner this year. You might wanna give this video a watch.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

So two questions after watching the video, I saw the test of the tape measure climber, did you decide to implement it or no? and Why is there what appears to be a broom turned upright on the back of your robot?

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Humility

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Looks like an interesting bot, but that ball is way to loose for my comfort.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Impressive robot!

Just remember, there are 3000+ teams saying the same thing. Good luck at your competitions!

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

We will not have the tape measure climber for our first regional. We hope to have it ready for Rocket City.

That is an upside down broom on the back of our robot. It is a pretty good way to help guide the balls into the proper position while maintaining the ability to go under the low bar.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Looks like a really good robot. The choo-choo crank on the extension spring might be unusual, but I think such a thing will be really precision and reliable too.

The 'pop-up' ball over the full front bumper is cool too.

We have a tape-measure hook placement system that doesn't work too--this might be a fairly common item in robot shops today.

Didn't see many crossings in your video.

Wonder how many teams considered Ballista for a name...I know I thought of it. But clearly you're an Onager.

Very cool robot.

Might have to work on humility....

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

You may want to look up Gracious Professionalism ::rtm::

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

I agree. The discussion has already taken place.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

Yes. We had the same problem in 2014 and were never able to get consistent shots into a much larger goal (compared to the ball/boulder). We surveyed several of the top teams in Tesla and Archimedes Divisions at Championship last year and they all stated that absolute control of the gamepiece was necessary to be successful.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

I believe we actually have part of our withholding allowance dedicated to things that keep the ball as stationary as possible, though don't take my word for that! :)

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

I have been informed that the item you are referring to isn't a broom. It is extruded monofilament PET. It ceased to be a broom when we cut the handle off.

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

We had a plan to manage this ...... just wasn't manufactured in time for the video.

Re-orientation has been completed..... Penalty phase will begin at our next regional ..... 4 hours hard labor at the safety glasses table.

Looking forward to getting out of the shop and into some regional events. See you all soon!

Re: FRC 3959 presents Ballista
 

I apologize for sounding cocky, I'm just incredibly excited for this year and very proud of our robot. You can ask anyone on our team, this is very out of character for me. Thanks for being understanding :)