[BillBartell]

Obviosuly 2 ways to go:
A: Use a plow system to push the balls to your coral

B:Use some sort of gathering device to collect a set number of balls and then deposit them into your coral.

-A-Using a plow system is much easier and lighter to build but it does have a large disadvantage. Plows were entially designed to push things like snow or any object that does not roll. We however are dealing with balls, not exactly the easiest thing to just push to exactly where u want it. Think of a plow pushing balls more as a socker player just nudging the balls to were he wants them to go. Another disadvantage of a plow is that the balls you wish to gather have to be in the remote area of between your robot and your coral. So your robot would have to drive away from the player station, turn around, and push the ball with a pool style shoot toward the coral.

-B-Of course the second option is much more complicated and going to consume much more of your robot. With some sort of gathering device the robot could simple drive any where were a ball is regardless of the orientation of the robot to the feild, gather it, and drive to the coral.

So in final, my team is going to go with a ball gathering device, for 2 main reasons. The possibility of various strategies can develope at the comp. and we beleive that we are going to be able to gather more balls faster and easier then a simple plow design.