[dhitchco]

Some "rookie" comments, but not giving away anything that our team is thinking about doing.....But maybe food for thought for more-experienced teams (hopefully our ally some day.....ha, ha)

1) I read this thread about "long arms" and "4 feet extension. Just remember that you do NOT need to reach out more than 2.5 feet in the HORIZONTAL direction to be hovered over a goal in order to drop/place a tetra. Don't cantilever more than you have to.

2) To 'pre-load' or not to 'pre-load' with on-board tetras. The trade-off to loading up multiple tetras will be the difference in time to drive back and forth to a goal versus the time to back out of the load station long enough to re-enter the load station to pick up another tetra.

***HINT and concept: I had envisioned a "back flip" robot loader that had an arm on the very FRONT of the robot with a upside down tetra "basket" on the rear of the robot. The loader arm grabs a tetra from the loader station and "back flips" it onto the rear of the robot UPSIDE down in a stack. Each time you grab a tetra, the robot arm will have to lift vertically a bit to compensate for the on-board stack. Then drive to a goal and simply reverse the process.