[westfalia]

With last year's robot, we initially designed a long arm that would allow us to stack bins and push them and knock over stacks all with the same mechanism. But we soon found out that it was way to huge and gave us a sickening tendency to tip over. So... We took out all of the arm except the bottom most part, allowing us to have a moving arm perfectly capable for knocking over stacks. It worked great along with some capable drivers! Another benefit it had: if a few rounds we tipped over as a result of some hard pushing... But our handy arm could reright us onto our wheels every time.

This year we use a telescoping arm that extends 11 feet upwards, that allows us to hang from the floor. Fortunately, it does exactly what we designed it to, and doesn't make us tip. But, as an added benefit, once again, if we ever tip over, it can reright us. My being the arm operator these past two years and also being one of the arm designers has been a trip- lots of surprises!