[dtengineering]

Launching is cooler than lifting, and you can bet you are going to see some neat launch designs... as well as some noble attempts that just don't quite cut it. Mind you, you'll see that with lifters, hybrid code, and everything else, too.

We decided to go with an arm to do the lifting, in part because if you have a partner (or two) each capable of quickly placing the ball on the overpass and then quickly lifting the ball from the overpass then you never have to give up posession of the ball.

Consider:

Robot A is positioned on the far side of the finish line, ready to lift the ball from the overpass.

Robot B approaches the near side of the overpass, places the ball on the overpass.

Robot C is doing a lap with a ball in possession.

Robot A grabs the ball from the overpass (hurdle complete now) and proceeds to do a lap.

Robot B crosses the finish line (completing a lap), and turns around - ready to receive the ball after C places it on the overpass.

Repeat as needed.

It will take three co-ordinated lifters and some excellent driving, but it would be fun to see three good shooters go against three good lifters. I'll bet that ball possession would come out on top.... unless the shooters had some way of catching the ball after it went over the overpass and were able to do a similar technique to the lifters.

Jason