[Basel A]

Originally Posted by Colin P

Bionic Barons have the best I've seen in person. It's a REALLY wide roller claw. The big spatula rollers seem to be the best overall. Claws that ride parallel to and an inch above the ground have the best gathering capability.

Snappers, as I like to call them, are fast at picking up tubes, but slow to score. A robot with a jointed arm and a pinching action claw is what i'd call a snapper.

Rollers are a bit slower at collecting tubes, but are unmatched in scoring speed. Working rollers against one another to articulate tubes is probably the best design for a robot with a jointed arm.

Elevator robots with inside tube collectors are the other best design, but the two are hard to compare.

What I liked about roller claw pickup was that teams could run into a tube, then immediately move backwards. No driver expertise needed.

What I liked about claw and inside tube scorers is that they don't affect the tube when they let go. Roller claws must spit a tube out, which can cause bounce and possible descoring. Grabbers can just let go.

That said, successful pickup and scoring is possible with any general design concept.