ttldomination,
The Intake System was kind of interesting, because we only had three LEGO motors available when we built it and a small cross-sectional space in the front of the robot to install it. So we came up with a simple mechanical design that takes up about 2 inches of the width of the robot and that makes one LEGO motor do three different tasks. The rotating turbine is powered by one LEGO motor. This turbine, rotating in one direction, first sweeps pucks underneath the robot. When the pucks bang into a wall underneath the robot, the turbine then kicks the front of the puck up, thereby rotating the puck into a vertical position. As the puck gets kicked up, it bangs into a second wall. This causes the turbine to then lift the puck off the ground up into a vertical conveyor belt system that uses non-slip pad for conveyor belts. This conveyor belt system lifts the puck over 17 inches off the ground and then drops it into our Magazine for delivery.
In terms of the rack-detecting tab, we have a touch sensor-bumper mounted on the servo.
Tyler,
Yeah it was 26 lbs at the regional tournaments; by Atlanta it was up to 29 lbs.
-Jonathan