[pilum40]

We're considering using a straight up system almost like a paintball marker. The loader would be simple-a laundry basket with a hole in the bottom that has a sliding door attached. The inbounders for our team will pitch or place the basketballs into the basket. the breech would be a 90 degree angled piece of 12" diameter pvc tubing. The "barrel" would be a length of 12" pvc or heavy duty cardboardtubing. We would use a Medium sized Bimba pneumatic piston with the acutating arm moving through a piece of pvc drilled and glued into the center in the 90 degree piece.Inside, the piston end would have a small piece of ply or pine covered in bumper fabric to keep it from ripping the game basketballs. We will use the adjustable inlets to regulate pressures between matches The trigger would be acutated via button on controller or via programming in hybrid. The piston would be moved back into the ready position by a second button/refilled with air. As the arm moved back into place, a line would pull the "shutter" open to load another ball into the breech almost like a paintball marker uses vertical feed. The barrel itself will be raised and lowered by a second pneumatic piston. This is rough...very rough at this point. The other option is a baseball thrower. We're deciding how much time we really want to spend on shooting versus getting to the ramps, staying on the ramps, blocking and getting coop points. Which is more important and will help us advance to the alliance phase? All good questions, we're kicking them around as we build and program the other components of the bot.