pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

Ok, I have looked at a LOT of the robots this year and so far, our team is the only one that can pick balls up off the ground in more then one place. Every team I have seen picks them up from the front or back, our team this year can pick the balls up from both sides of the robot. Since we have holonomic/omni-drive, we are able to strafe side to side to pick the balls up. Here is a pic:

You can see where the ball goes in on this side. it's right between the wheels.


Same on this side. It gives a little better picture. What do you think?

Josh
Team Driver/Desginer

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

unique, I like it!

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

Now thats something you don't see every day.

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

The idea I presented during our design brainstorming session was to have some sort of omni-directional drive and to be able to slurp up balls from any side -- but it didn't make the cut. :(

Our (nearly) final design was planned to have pick-ups at both the front and rear, but we ran out of weight budget, and ended up with a pick-up only in the front.

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

how exactly does it pick up form both sides and how efficient/amount of time does it take? any closer pictures of how it picks up? great looking bot!

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

I don't get why you'd do it from the sides. Wouldn't it make more sense to have it front and back? I know there's the holonomic drive system, which is very nice. 190 used the exact same thing last year and I was blown away by it. Anyway! I know there's the holonomic drive system, but still it just seems like you'll be driving forward and backward more often then side to side.

Well whatever works, I guess. It's more sides than we have!

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

the thing with holonomic is that there IS no true front or back. They can simply turn the robot sideways and "strafe" in the direction they want to go. or they can position themselves in front of the goal, strafe left/right to pick up balls and return to fire, all without repositioning. I think this is an awsome design, and will possibly win an award.

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

Basicly there is a large hoel on both sides as you can see in the pictures. Then there is a REALLY fast moving belt that the ball hits. As soon as it hits it, it gets sucked up into our hopper. It works really well also. Every test we have run it has worked.

Josh
Team Driver/Designer

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

Really nice looking design. The team i'm on,1902,can only pick up balls from one side. But me and some of the other guys on the team used Holo-nomic drive last year with 1083 and the flexability it gives is a very good thing to have. Good lookin bot

P.S. Can you dump the balls back out into the courner goals or are you just shooting for the center?

Re: pic:Can you pick balls up from more than one place???
 

Our robot can have balls roll in from all sides of the robot :D since our base frame is lifted high enough. They get picked up in the back by an elevator.