[tetravaal]

Just my 2c here.

Be careful about complexity. My team still runs into things where we take real life scenarios (Crossbows), and then try to translate them into robots. I think your difficulty will come with a latching mechanism because they are inherently harder to get working (Holding 100lbs force but using 2lbs to release).

I don't know how advanced your team is, but a "Ball pitcher" will be a lot simpler mechanically because you just feed the ball in and boom its away.

:-)

Joe