The missing link:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/pi...gle&picid=6553
As a former member of Team 177 Bobcat Robotics, and the current team leader of team 229, of course when the team decided they wanted to do big balls, and wanted to use an arm to do it, there was some bobcat influence. I was proud to be able to share some of my knowledge that I gained from being a member of such a great team as 177. You guys truely inspire the FIRST community with your robots, and your students are always very involved all at the same time. I know when i went to visit them in the fall there were 3 machines running and they were all being run by students, even the CNC machine. (under supervision of course) Well done guys.
As far as 229 goes, we are a melting pot of vertran FIRSTers. Our officers (college leadership) include students formally from great teams including: 20, 166, 151, 173, 177, 263, 191. We utilize all of our knowledge to design and build the best robot possible, just like every team does.
The designs of all 4 of the robots you posted are different in their own manner. The onlything that is the same between Bobcat 2001 and Redemption 2 (229s bot) is that it is an extruded arm that extends. Other than that the devices that drive both the shoulder and the extendo are completely different. (I spent pleanty of time with both bots)

Likewise, the Rage robot pictured is also very different.
Its obvious that variations from the 97 bobcat arm have done well in competition, and they keep inproving.
Eric O'Brien
Proud member of Team 229 and Alum of Team 177
PS: Do you think we could borrow on of those bots to give our arm driver more training? I know there are some extras lying around
