[nedrobotics]

In Breakaway, we scored from the far end of the field in autonomous and during the matches using a pre-pressurized, gate-latched pneumatic cylinder, and lots of surgical tubing to assist with kicking the soccer balls.

The cylinder re-tensioned the surgical tubing, was latched in the closed position, pressurized to 60psi (a force of ~180lbs), and another much smaller cylinder released the gate latch. Tremendous forces and speeds! That design helped our alliance win the 2010 Colorado Regional. With 120psi on the air cylinder our kick tests on soccer balls have gone about 55'.

If we wanted to kick a short shot, like if we were on offense, then we fire the solenoid to kick, and then immediately reverse it. We actually had good distance control, depending on how long of a delay we used between the extend and retract we had decent control of the stroke.