Since it seems to be coming up a bit, here's some links to pictures of said mechanism, courtesy of Daniel Ernst:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daniele...7623503276399/
First off, man that's pretty: bot and photos both. Hats off to 469 for a stellar idea well executed.
To summarize the chute selection mechanism, it's just a metal bar at the top of the chute that rotates from one side to the other to complete the track of that particular chute. Think of a railroad switch. If it could actuate instantly, they could change their minds up to the instant the ball hit the top of the chute. Instead, it's pneumatically actuated, so it looks to take a small amount of time to move. Figure they're committed after the ball comes off the ball return. Per a previous post, it sounds like they're going to be hiding this information from opponents with a simple shield behind the flipper. If I were them, I'd block as much view of the ball as I could from the back to make defense that much harder. Ideally, teams wouldn't know which way a ball was going until it left the chute and was on its way to the goal.
@Jaine,
I think (hope) most of the talk about ways to play 469 is just idle chatter and brainstorming. Mid-week there's not THAT much going on, especially with the lack of rule changes from the GDC. 469 is an attention getting robot that presents a unique challenge to any opponents. I think the problem-solving strategists on the board have just been presented with an irresistible challenge in an otherwise boring week. I don't think it's really aimed personally at 469, as there was a giant strategy thread aimed at this style robot earlier in the week. 469 is just a focus as a particularly stellar example of this style of robot.
Personally, the various discussions of specific robot designs to counter 469 seem incredibly silly if we're considering actually implementing them. Seems like something on the order of Lex Luthor designing a kryptonite armored car to thwart Superman and forgetting to put locks on the door to keep the cops out.