[BBray_T1296]

Our robot was similar to 148's in that it was a multibot with one part stacking at the feeder station, and the other ferrying stacks/collecting RCs. Our stacking robot (called 'the cube') was fully autonomous. It detected an entering tote, stacked it up to 6, then went into an unloading position with the retaining gate open, waiting for the other half ('the jack') to remove it. Once it detected the stack was gone, it reset itself to begin the next stack. There was of course a manual override in case it messed up, which could be controlled by the second driver.

On the topic of second drivers, automating half of our robot allowed our robot to only be driven by a single operator. The secondary driver became a second human player, assisting the first by queuing up totes to be thrown through the chute faster. Using this method, by the off-season we were passing up to 30 totes/match into the robot. Had the 'jack' been more complex, the second driver could have assisted, but it wasn't necessary this year.