Re: ball cannon???
 

Sniper relies on the accuracy, and elements of surprise and disguise. In 2006 our ball sorter would begin spinning about 1.5 seconds before the first ball fired. It ended up being a giant "HIT ME" sign for our opponents. The gorrillas on the other hand had speed and accuracy, but limited payload. They could deliver about 10 shots in 1.5 seconds, but could really only deliver those 10 and would have to reload.

Just some more food for thought? I think we are going to make a ghillie suit for our robot made out of FRP, so teams won't see us sneak up on them...:D
http://www.theghilliesuits.com/
http://video.google.com/videosearch?...um=7&ct=title#

Re: ball cannon???
 

And those that try to hit you will just slide right off. :p

Re: ball cannon???
 

I agree, pinning and dumping is more accurate:D

Re: ball cannon???
 

it may be more accurate, but the question is how easy/quick is it? For that strategy, you're assuming you can first catch up to another robot, second pin them against the wall, and third dump in them before they have a chance to get away (keep in mind that they will have more traction with the carpet border). You also have to consider how much time all of that will take - time a shooting bot will be collecting and firing balls non-stop.

There are trade-offs for both types of robots with the game design. I don't believe there is one type (shooting or dumping) that can be considered "better" overall than the other. At least, not at this point.

Re: ball cannon???
 

I see a canon as a good option, at least compared to a dumper; just because the height a bucket would have to reach for dumping along with necessary size and good stalking skills, make a dumper seem a lot riskier and less likely (according to our prototypes)...but who knows, there still are a ton of complications with the canon...:yikes:

Re: ball cannon???
 

So, a flywheel shooter is spectacular only in its mediocrity. It seems that most of your energy goes into deformation of the ball, and not into kinetic energy. Anybody having any success at throwing the ball any reasonable distances?

Patrick

Re: ball cannon???
 

We're prototyping a piston launch system. We can launch the balls about 10 feet and they can make it into the trailer.

Re: ball cannon???
 

'About 10 feet...' How do you control the distance you launch? A variable-force piston?!?

Patrick

Re: ball cannon???
 

Key word, prototyping.

Re: ball cannon???
 

words to live by......

were working on combining our harvester with our "vomiter"....so much surgical tubing so little time......

Re: ball cannon???
 

We have a good prototype/start up now, a video (of one of our not so hot rounds) is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S04ub3plTSY

Re: ball cannon???
 

We finally got our prototype working up to our standards, here's a video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIlRWFW9jsk *

We opted for the backspin and shorter distance... first time we've made a shooter and we're enjoying the consistency when firing multiple shots in a row :) something like 3 balls/second.

*No freshmen were harmed in the making of this film.

Re: ball cannon???
 

Now, if we could only to get it to work better than our standards! :)

Re: ball cannon???
 

Yeah, that prototype definitely proved it's possible - we could hit the trailer 16 feet away! And on top of that, what the team learned from the prototype should allow us to improve upon it and increase range and accuracy.

Re: ball cannon???
 

Good Job! and thats just the prototype :D