Funneling Balls

[Fuego247]

How is everyone thinking of funneling their balls into the small space we are allotted in front?

Which small space? The alley? The key? What?

[Grim Tuesday]

I think he means the front of the robot, by deploying a 14" funnel appendage. It is definitely an interesting idea, and something we could put in our withholding allowance if we had any extra weight.

[Flimsor]

Our bridge tipper doubles as a collecter. There's an angled plate on each of the arms (connected so it's one) and they funnel in balls. It'll help during hybrid mode when we go to tip the bridge for the extra balls.

[Fuego247]

Yeah, I meant the front of the robot. Our front is 27" wide, and subtracting the 8" of bumper on both sides, that leaves us 11" to collect balls. Could people post pictures of what their design is, whether it be a rough sketch, CAD model, or actual picture? We need some ideas. Much appreciated!

[Flimsor]

Here you go.

[Fuego247]

How do you plan on grabbing balls from the wall with that design? And how will you power it?
EDIT: And what is the rail for on the right side?

[Flimsor]

It's powered by a pneumatic cylynder that rotates the arm. It's just a funnel that will help to align the balls with our induction system, so it won't actually be picking up balls, just funneling and tipping the bridge. We're picking up balls with a conveyor belt system.

[Fuego247]

So it will be folded up into your robot when the game starts?

[Flimsor]

Yes. It's an arm that will rotate down to flip the bridge and funnel balls if we need to.

[Fuego247]

Ok. Thanks!

[nssheepster]

Originally Posted by Fuego247

How do you plan on grabbing balls from the wall with that design? And how will you power it?
EDIT: And what is the rail for on the right side?

Why do you need to pick up off the wall? Just let it fall, and pick it up off the floor.

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by nssheepster

Why do you need to pick up off the wall? Just let it fall, and pick it up off the floor.

From past experience with games with balls, balls always seem to collect along the wall .

[Bjenks548]

Originally Posted by IndySam

From past experience with games with balls, balls always seem to collect along the wall .

Better yet there are a lot of corners this year. On one side of the field there is 4 bump/bridge corners, 2 wall/bridge corners, 2 wall/wall corners, and 2 wall/fender corners. After play catalyst and watching past games, getting balls out of a corner will be pretty important.

[Flimsor]

The space between the two is almost 12.5. This is not our only means of collecting balls. They funnel into a conveyor belt system that has a wheel with fingers. They only helping us during hybrid when we go to tip the bridge. They will ensure that any balls on the bridge will be funneled into the collection system, and not miss the opening.

We'll be pulling it up and collecting balls normally for the rest of the game.