Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Team 1501 had a great idea but we had to throw it out.
You have a ramp with a supply of automobile airbags. One airbag per launched trackball. Put airbag in place behind trackball and BANG, trackball is launched over rack and beyond :ahh:
What do you think?

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

I think the GDC has already heard of this and nixed it: http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread...ghlight=airbag

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Well, I think it's cool. :D

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

sweet video

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

So Winnovation and Robot Casserole are thinking of launching the ball. I'm really looking forward to the Wisconsin Regional now.

Too bad the Detroit Regional is the same weekend. I'd like to see what the Thunder Chickens are thinking of as well.

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

It would be cool if i didnt think it was someone throwing it over :\
Hehe, Atleast put some sound in it!

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Allow me to put your mind at ease--the only thing that touched the ball was the shooting mechanism. In fact, we had to shoot the ball about 4 times before we got a video that didn't show the mechanism

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Anyone who's lived through Joe Ross canceling The Championships automatically defaults to suspicion of just about any extreme claim. That said, I, personally, do not doubt that there will be launching teams out there. There are multiple mechanisms that would be capable of this and some of them aren't even outrageously complicated.

I'm still curious how launching teams are planning on corralling these trackballs after the hurdle. Unless you're launching nearly vertical, those trackballs are going to have a pretty decent horizontal velocity and are going to bounce around a rather lot. That's assuming you don't have a human on the other end to politely catch the ball for you. So I think launching the ball will be easier in some respects, but I think you'll end up losing time recapturing the ball afterwards. Plus you don't get the bonus points for ending with the ball on the overpass unless you're really, really talented.

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

We played with backspin when tossing the ball over by hand....it's not too hard to get it to bounce straight up

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

One of our students actually suggested this as well. We all got a good chuckle out of it. Of course, we had to explain that using explosives to launch the ball would not be legal in competition. We also encouraged the kids to keep thinking outside the box like this. Then, see if the ideas they came up with fit within the rules, or as we use them, "Design Criteria".

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Although you may think it will be difficult to recapture the ball and take extra time, a non-shooting mechanism will most likely need to lower after hurdling the ball to fit under the overpass. Also, if the ball does travel far, it will eventually hit the wall, where it will come back to you, or hit the corner and go into the next quadrant of the field. Grabbing the ball after launch won't take anymore time than if you weren't shooting the ball and still hurdling. Another thing is that at the end of a match, hurdling is not worth that much less than if you place the ball on the overpass. The best case would be to hurdle the ball and have an alliance member 'bump' or pass the ball back to you so you could place, getting the most points possible.

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

So if your score 8 pts for getting the ball over the overpass, it would take an equivalent of 4 laps (am i correct) without pushing the ball, and 2 laps while pushing the ball? that's what was said on our team, and we want to go for launching as long as we can secure and launch a ball in that amount of time... or even better, less than that amount. it's 3rd on the list, but it's still on the list of things to do.

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

First, just as I won't assume that all shooters are going to hurl the balls at ludicrous speeds, don't assume that non-shooting mechanisms are going to be painfully slow or something. While they might need to go up slowly, there's no real reason they need to lower slowly as well. I'm not really certain what the benefit of a bouncing trackball coming back at you would be, but still. As far as scoring the trackball at the end, I think the lift gives you more options. A shooter could make a last second hurdle, a lifter could make a last second hurdle and score the ball. Even if you don't have someone to roll it back to you, I'd give decent odds of having enough time to score it on the opponent's overpass.

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

Team 104 here, we are planning on hurdling but unsure if we will use a shooter or not. Personally I want to do a shooter, but hey team effort and all, not all my decision. Still I'm trying to prove it will work and, I'm almost done.:D

Re: Are any teams planning on shooting the ball?
 

We are shooting it over. We think it is easier then most think. It is like kicking a field goal from the endzone. You really don't have to aim it and it will go over. :D

You can also make a robot with a very low center of gravity that will make your robot handle much better for the high speed cornering part.