Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Who has the best small ball capabilities? There were so many teams to choose from! Some could catch, some could hold a ton, some could just push really well!

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Catcher - 93, [EDIT]1241*[/EDIT] (i actually think that too, they just slipped my mind lol)
Gatherer - 33, 45, 571
Pusher - 254, 60

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

1241 also had an excellent ball catcher

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I would have to say 93 as being the best small ball manipulator overall. They are able to catch all, or almost all of the balls when dropped, and they're hard to move out of the way.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

How about some examples!? I'd love to see some other small ball handlers from other divisions.

I wasn't watching a lot of the matches, but here are a few matches from Currie that show these machines at their best:

Team 175, Buzz Gathering Small Balls:
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2...ur/cur_fm1.wmv

Team 461 Westside Boiler Invasion Gathering Small Balls:
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2.../cur_qf4m2.wmv


Matt

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

93 and 469 were two of the best small ball bots in galileo... however i believe that 469 may have been better at small balls even though they didnt catch because they had excellent delivery. 93s delivery was very comical the way they would shake their entire robot, however it seemed to take most of the match to get all of those balls out. Did you guys have a special button you pressed to make the robot shake? I believe 177 had one of those in 2000

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I would have to say that under gatherer's were 1024, 461, and 175

We (1018) decided to gather also, and we can spit them out and have them go into the slot from more that 10 ft out.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Yes, 461 was also one of the best ball handelers I've seen. We paired up with them at the MWR...and were amazed at how well their collecting mechanism worked. Also, the great thing about them is they can do more than just the small balls.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Here's a good video showing us herding. We didn't herd for very much time because we wanted to leave time to test all functions since we were having problems in other matches.

http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2...ew/new_036.wmv

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I'm surprised no one has mentioned 95 yet. Maybe I am a little biased being a former student, but still...

I havn't seen any team manage to combine the speed, rollers and plywood that 95 keeps putting out. Once their driver tamed the beast, watching matches was acutally fun again! Those folks in Lebanon just know how to pick up balls like no one else, IMHO.

-Andy A.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I personally think that 33 had the setup. Suck the balls up fast, spit 'em out fast, hold a ton. leet.

However, I also liked the approach used by 21 and a few other teams (whose numbers escape me). I recall one of the teams I can't remember catching every single ball on the field. Only thing is, I'm yet to see a perfected method of getting the balls into the chute. Outside of that, leet.

Then again, I only saw robots from Palmetto and Archimedes. So I may be biased or blind--your choice.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

33 is the best gather without a doubt. 177 is also good at capturing and gathering them too.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I'd have to go with 33 and the team that made it to the finals (possibly won it)... The robot with the multiplier grabber with 4 prongs... I have no idea the number though...

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

yes we had a button we would press to shake the robot, we called it OC mode (out of control).

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

93, 1241, and I believe 1 also had ball drop robots. I liked 93 because of their ability to stay under the drop, but 1241 had faster delivery.
177, 469, 45, 173, 492, and 461 all picked up small balls using rollers and the like. So I liked ours best...but I'm really biased ;) , but the technokats system was really great, too.
I remember liking how wildstang (111) herded extremely effectively with their swerve drive, too. Acutally..so many robots herded that those capabilities are far harder to remember.

In general...I was surprised at the lack of robots who were designed to deal with the small balls...but all the ones who intended to, worked very well! :)

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

95 was definitely a good robot and very well made, and made on the same lines as 33, with a good gatherer....i think they deserve credit for a good job esp at Palmetto with that 8th seed in the finals, however because they did not make an appearance at nationals they seem to have slipped everyones minds...

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

33 is without a doubt at the top of this list. Their design was simple and effective. They could zoom around the field with ease and even incorporated a hanging device into an already super robot. Sturdy, strong, reliable: everything you could ask for in a robot.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Thanks for the props, the bot you're thinking of is 469.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I liked the push out side panels of MOE for herding. Also, all of the other robots that had flare-out side panels. The good basket teams were 93 and 469.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

33 hands down... not only were they as fast as 45 or 571's mechanisms (granted that 571 could really shoot those balls out fast), they could wait under the ball drop to get 3-6 balls and they had AN AMAZING DRIVETRAIN which was dominating for a small ball manipulator. You could play defense, but they were stronger. 45 and 571 get mad props due to their 2x ball abilities though.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

So many great ball bots, I can't name them all. My top 5, in no particular order: 469, 33, 45, 1241, 571. 469 gets props for making it so far, and their ability to get huge scores every time, as do 45 and 571. As far as sheer ball gathering capability goes, noone held a candle to 33... their ball mechanism was simply awesome. Finally, 1241 was the best catcher I saw, and gets extra points for doing it as a rookie. I expect good things out of them in the future.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

A lot of great ones mentioned but also 1083, didn't make nationals, but they were amasing, omni-drive with ball collector. And there human player was a sniper. In like 18 matches I saw.. he missed like 3 balls total, it was a rare occasion when they wouldn't get a full stationary goal.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I'd have to say that 33 is the best pure small ball gatherer, but I loved 45's design, as well as 177 (who had a extremely strong drivetrain) and the hybrid bots- 303, 469, fot they could both suck up and cap with ease.

I just realized that ALL of the bots that I sawcaught the balls had trouble getting them out except for one- and I saw a lot, 93, 1403, etc- the one bot that could get every ball out every time was 177, the part of their bot that extended out to catch balls was very powerful and just crushed the balls back until the vacuum caught them.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

yeah, 33 and 45 were cool, but could THEY pick up the 10 point balls from the tee and put them in the big goal with the robot? HMMM? no? granted its illegal, but it was still fun to do on the practice field. :D

for those who've never seen us

besides, shooting the balls out fast only helps when they don't bounce out (an annoying problem at times). it is pretty cool to see the robot dump a load of balls from mid-field though :cool: (i don't have a movie, i'll post one if i find one)

my personal favorite ballbot would have to be 45. A high capacity hopper and an amazing capping arm made minced meat of the competition (including us). If we do end up going to IRI this year, I wanna see another 571 + 45 match (the twins, as Joel Johnson would call them)

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

i am just wondering about the ways of small balls and how other teams held there small balls together. like our robot the balls raise up and down out the back part but did any other robot go in one side and out the other and if so can i see a pic of it? thanks

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Our team used a hoop-ish system, where the balls are driven in by sand belts powered by a window motor, then locked into individual hoops. Each ball pushed the previous ball up and out into the next hoop. The balls were locked in by steel bands, each tightened by a cam. Balls were pushed out by running the system in reverse, gravity would push each hoop down into the belts. It worked out rather well in competition, even though we didn't use it too much. Most of our strategies involved capping and hanging, neither of which worked as well as our ball sucker...

Here's our file photo

I'll try to get some screen grabs of it's use in competition.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

303 is rockin. Not only can they tow the goal under the ball drop then can quickly take the multiplier off and place it on either goal. They can also hold 2 multiplier balls. They also can suck balls off the floor quickly.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

illegal???

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

last i checked, the robots aren't allowed to score small balls by themselves

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I would have to say 33, 303 THE FRIDGE!, 45, and 175 were some of the best small ball manipulators i have seen. Also 571 was also very effective and picking up those small balls.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

My vote has to go towards 469 or 33. I loved the strategy I saw 469 use in Chicago letting the balls not only fall into the goal, but into their robot instead. They had a quick pickup and a quick and reliable release. And if that's not enough for you they were great with the multiplier as well. Amazingly they were overlooked in Chicago and didn't go until the 8th pick. I feel bad that we were not able to work with them well enough to win the regional, they really deserved a win. It was great playing with them though and in my opinion they would receive the best ball pickup award.

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

You gotta love 303!!! THE FRIDGE really rocked it out... Same with 469...

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

Ahhhh, my bad, I thought you meant it was illegal to pick the 10 point balls off the tee. Since I never saw you guys with a 10 pt ball or heard anything on CD about you guys doing it I just assumed it was illegal. Thanks for clearing it up-

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

I totally agree, they really help our alliance together at nats. IT was awsome how they let the balls fall in both the bot and the goal, capped it, delivered the balls., and capped again.....every time!

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

My favorite bot, without doubt 33. It is THE perfect bot and we were going crazy when 60 and 33 picked us as an alliance.
I already had made game plans as well, 33 knock off bonus ball during autonomous while 1241 catches their own balls from the ball chute as they drop during autonomous. THen 33 goes off to collect all the opponents balls leaving the opponent with less than 5 - 6 balls on the floor to score with. 1241 steals one of the multiplier balls while 33 goes off to hang. Now to me that would have been a perfect match during a qualification round!

Anyway, we are so grateful to team 60 and 33 for picking us as partners. You guys were the best teams in our division! We really enjoyed our rookie year and you can count on us being back next year for more excitement!

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

It is rarely seen that anything goes according to plan... haha it sounds good though... A LOT of points...

Re: Who has the best small ball capabilities?
 

303 for gathering