[ComradeNikolai]

Thanks; that board was organized largely by one of our mentors (teacher's brother-in-law), which helped significantly.
Our claw is actuated by pneumatic, and we're getting very good gripping strength. Unless we jerk the arm up and down significantly, we don't lose the ball until our fuse on our compressor blows (note to self: replace that at the first competition.) On a side note, our arm is raised and lowered by a winch created from a window motor (I think, I'm a programmer) from the KoP, with an aluminium drum attached to it and 1/8 inch steel cable.