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Originally Posted by Matt Gent
Our bot (MARS 1523) uses a surgical-tubing powered catapult/jai-alai cesta launcher. The only truly machined piece on the robot is the catapult hub, everything else is bandsaw/hacksaw/drill press/etc.
Our ball hopper is a basketball net stretched between aluminum tubes.
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A picture of our bot (Although I don't personally think it falls in your "ugly" category) can be seen on our gallery
here. The
ball net worked quite well in the end, virtually no balls bounced back out unlike teams with hard Plexiglass hoppers.
We also used plastic green garden fencing to shield our bot. It was painted black for fear of a DQ, but we have since learned we had nothing to worry about (it was a dark forest green).
Another thing to note is the
front wheels are made from glued-together PVC end caps. The
rear wheels are homegrown styrofoam and fiberglass with about six layers on them. They were sanded on a lathe and a rubber conveyor belt track was added for traction.