Yeah, we totally ripped you guys off- on the arm anyways!
We were going to construct a large, multiple level arm, but weight constraints meant that by doing something like yours, we could save alot of weight- not to mention we loved the strategy and the performance! Our ramp was there from before we saw your video, but the arm did come from a little divine inspiration...
As far as th strategy- I think we fill an small but interesting niche- We're more capable than a ramp-only bot, as we can fill in a whole row, and while some bot's have been able to fit a whole ramp and a good arm within weight, I think the capacity of these ramps to be used often may be questionable. I wouldn't be surprised if we see alot of ramps on good arm bots come off at the first regional. I'm constantly caught between being very satisfied with the design, and being rather worried, but I come out confident more often then not.
I guess we'll both know how well it works within the next few weeks- we'll tell you how it goes!
EDIT: Guess I'm Johnny-come-lately. As it was, the failure of our vaccum pickup led us into a further adoption of your design. It's an excellent, robust design!
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