[JesseK]

It should be noted that due to geometric constraints of a 40" ball fitting inside a 28" wide frame with 4/6" wheels at (usually) a 24-25" wheel base that the ball will NOT naturally roll past the front set of wheels.

The only way I've been able to CAD a ball rolling into a frame with no obstructions is by using 4" unpowered omni wheels on the front of the bot with an open front-end and no bumpers on the front. The inside edge of the omni wheels will slightly graze the ball as it comes in, which means the precision needed to capture a ball in this manner is pretty high. The inside edges of the left & right omnis are 23" apart, using CAD representations of the 1" wide single rail omnis from superdriodrobots.com. I think, though I haven't tested, that the quality & performance of a bot will suffer if it's setup in this manner.

This implies that a forklift MUST:
1. Extend outside the dimensions of the bot and
2. Be a bit more complex than KISS allows or
3. Lift from the long side (38" side) of the bot if the lift is always contained within the 28x38 dimensions, which means your bot drives sideways and takes up alot of racing room or is at least semi-holonomic. Niether is exactly "simple".