Quote:
Originally Posted by BJC
While I think that this is the general tone I don’t think anyone has actually come out and said it:
Golden Rules of Collecting:
1. The faster the better. (Overkill after you get past 2x robot top speed.)
2. The wider/more tolerance the better. (Less driver precision = faster ball collecting)
By the way, those rules apply to every game – even when you can only pick up one piece at a time. Always keep in mind you have to pick it up before you can score it.
Regards, Bryan
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I'd say one of the most important parts of collector design is making it simple and easy for the driver. In Rebound Rumble, the ideal collector allows the driver to touch a ball with that part of the robot, and then next thing they know, the ball is in the robot ready to shoot.
Ideally, the collector opening should be large, so the driver has a nice big, easy target. Also, when designing the intake there should be some consideration for the range of angles the driver can take to pick up a ball. For example, a 973/177/1477/2415 intake (118 had one too that I got to see, but they had to scrap it for weight) has a large angle that balls can be picked up from, since it can intake from the sides. This way the driver doesn't have to drive head on to pick up a ball, just basically touch it with a roller on any side.
It is interesting to use 1477 as an example here, because they didn't have their final intake for their first two regionals. For Alamo and Bayou, they used what was basically a large funnel with belts/rollers going up it. They had problems with this intake having a small angle of entry for balls, or else they would jam against the sides of the intake. The driver had to drive head on at balls, and line them up close to the center of the funnel. You could see that they were shooting much more rapidly and collecting many more balls by Championships and could even see a decent improvement at Lone Star, though they didn't win there.
Another trend among the more successful teams this year was an over-the-bumper intake. This had the largest impact for long robots, as they were no longer limited to the small gap allowed by the bumper rules, but instead close to the entire short side of the robot. Something that many designers didn't foresee, but I'm sure most drivers noticed, is that balls tend to get stuck against the walls, and they're hard to get when your bumpers are in the way. A through-the-bumper intake can't get the "edge" of the intake roller as close to a ball on the side of the field as an over-the-bumper can. This problem was also very apparent in 2010.