pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Is this just for fun or is it at a little competition?

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

It was both. The day included our rookies and vets split into teams. They had to design and built Vex bots to play a modified version of this year's official Vex game "Hangin A-Round." We simplified the game, took out the hanging and tall goals scoring, and let them have at it.

It was very competitive.

Each team had to come up with a team name based on a letter of the alphabet that was assigned to their team. Some team names included

- Anonymous
- Black Hole
- Cool Blue
- Demonic Rooster
- EE
- Team FIRST
- Geezus
- Heavy Metalz

The eliminations featured the unique pairing of Geezus and Demonic Rooster. :D

-j-

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Looks fantastic. We did the same thing, only not as pretty as yours (used cardboard and carpet instead of steel and lexan). I think the students really had a ball with it, and the debriefing session at our next meeting will be interesting.
Lots of parents and teachers came to watch - hopefully that will help our team grow.

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

So, How was pushing the atlas ball? reliable? difficult?

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Yeah, I can imagine it must've been hard. We hosted a mini-game, Robot Soccer, 2V2 with the same ball and it was really hard to control the ball especially when going in high attempting to dribble the ball up the field. :p

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

The ball is bigger than the vex robots...presents some interesting design problems

Creating this into a brainstorming/teambuilding session was a great Idea...now if my team only had enough vex kits to do this

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

With these robots, and don't forget they only had a few hours to design and build them, it was more difficult to get up on the platform than it was to push the ball. There was a couple of matches where it came down to a test of strength, with robots on opposite sides of the ball trying to push the it (and the other robot) to their side of the field.

And the ball does NOT roll in a straight line!

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Indeed the ball is pretty tricky. We found out when 2 130+ lb robots went flying into the ball, some interesting stuff tends to happen:



Ball gets under other bot and they go bouncing back

Surprisingly the ball never popped during the match. It should still be interesting on the VEX scale. lol

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Is the ball weighted in a certain part?

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Assuming the Atlas ball is, in fact, the same as the 2X ball from 2004, then yes, some parts of the ball are heavier than others. I assume it's just a variation in the manufacturing process, but that's why you'd never see the 2X ball on the platform with the 2X aligned like it was on the mobile goals--you simply had to let the ball roll to its sweet spot, then center it on the platform.

(If you looked carefully on the balls in Atlanta, and perhaps elsewhere, you would see a little X on the top of where the ball would naturally rest. It really did speed the process.)

Re: pic: Fighting for the atlas ball
 

Yes, the ball isn't symmetrical. And surprisingly the heaviest part of the ball isn't necessarily the plug where you inflate it. If you look closely at the picture, you can see two small dots at the upper right. They are used as the "sweet spot" as Billfred said to help balance the ball on the toilet flange.