[dhitchco]

Some other general advice from one rookie to another. Think about the following:

1) The "arm" really only needs to extend about HORIZONTALLY 2.5 feet beyond the front edge of the robot in order to be hovered over the center of a goal

2) The "arm" may or may not need its own independent rotating/turning mechanism depending on how well you build your drive base assembly. Namely, can you position a tetra by using a "stiff arm" and rotating the whole robot at its base?

3) The arm needs to get to three different VERTICAL positions only. One is floor-height to pick-up a tetra on the field (either the vision tetras or one that got dropped), second is a tetra at "loading" height (manual load or auto-load) and the third height is the height required to TOP another goal or stacked tetra. No need to get to any other heights.

4) The robot "arm" most likely needs to be able to judge by itself when it is safe to "drop" a tetra onto a goal. It will be very difficult to see if the robot is in position from the driving station.

So.....think about your arm in a cast. What MINIMUM number of functions does the arm need to have?