Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

This is a For-What-It's-Worth public service announcement :D
Some of you may already know this. When placing the soccer ball on the playing field, place it with the air filler nozzle down. This is the heavy side of the ball because of the rubber seal. If you don't, the ball will roll away from you :ahh:

We now take you back to your regularly scheduled CD posts.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Wow.

I think I placed 20 or more soccer balls on the field last weekend and didn't realize this. I would just keep playing with them until they stopped rolling... I must've looked a bit crazy.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Interesting, I didn't notice either. Figured it was just irregularity in stitching.

On a side note, when we place the ball on the spots, how "on the spot" do they need to be?

Does the projection need to cover the spot? Does the bottom of the ball need to contact the spot?

I noticed that some of the spots weren't exactly the same size/shape (small fluctuations). Slight angles in the line of balls over the distance from the far zone makes the difference between the ball bouncing in or out...

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Mike,

I always placed the center of the ball as close to the center of the dot as I could and then adjusted our robot slightly to get a decent push in...

But, I saw some teams put the balls in placed and it seemed like from the top down the balls would've been covering the dot completely but not necessarily centered on the dot.

You might just want to ask the head ref at your next event.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

As seen here, this "feature" was also present in the poof balls from 2006. My students didn't buy the explanation that dark colors are heavier. :p

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Or let it roll to rest, then pick it up and translate it horizontally (don't roll it) to the X. Some balls may have other oddities that make one side heavier than the other.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

This could be tiresome if there's a slight incline.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

you guys are way over thinking this. its not hard to put the ball down. the carpet also helps keep it from rolling away.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Not really, balls will roll away. Watching team set up balls, they will roll away about 75% of the time.

Really cool, especially the poof ball phenomenon, never noticed that.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Yes, but than you waste time waiting for the ball to stop. Just put the nozzle side down and it should stay, in place, 99% of the time.

Re: Placing the socer ball on it's spot
 

Not really... When your autonomous is done via dead reckoning and the robot has a tendency to drift to the right about 6" over a 15 foot Distance you want the soccer balls to be exactly where you place them. A 1/2" could, and has been the difference between us scoring and simply pushing balls into the wall in Autonomous.