During the build season, one of our design ideas was to have an elevator lift attached to an extending 'hypotenuse' that would be fixed to the rear. This extender would be a track for our roller-claw to travel from one side of the robot to the other. A spool and 9.5ft cable would be responsible for pulling the claw from one end to the other, and would also mechanically pull the claw over whenever the elevator was raised. Gravity would pull the claw back down. The idea behind all this was to prevent the need to turn around after getting a tube.
Not having much knowledge in 3D CAD, I made a digital model the way I did know how, which was to make an executable 'game' that allows the user to 'control' the design in a scale environment. You can access it here:
http://www.bearealis.com/games/1094ProtoConveyor.exe
However, we didn't go this route, because it was getting too late in the season to prototype anymore, and we hadn't much positive experience with spools anyway. So what are your thoughts on this, now that we've seen actual matches in play? Would this design have been a trouble-maker, or should it be kept in mind for future years?