UpsideDown Frisbees

[apples000]

Our team's been having some trouble figuring out how to pick up the frisbees from the ground. If we're picking up one in a corner, we'll need a sensor to tell if it's upside down then flip it if needed. Has anybody come up with a good way to flip/detect a flipped frisbee yet?

[Gregor]

How do you know you need to flip them?

[Sean Raia]

Shoot them vertically

[elsenor]

Originally Posted by Sean Raia

Shoot them vertically

Shooting them parallel to the ground will just bother you more than help you. However, shooting it vertically shouldn't cause a lot of problems because the wheel would only be touching the sides of the frisbee, not the faces.

[ProgrammerTori]

Originally Posted by elsenor

Shooting them parallel to the ground will just bother you more than help you. However, shooting it vertically shouldn't cause a lot of problems because the wheel would only be touching the sides of the frisbee, not the faces.

Remember the high goal is only a foot gap. The frisbee I think is approximately that size as well. If you shoot the frisbee vertically, getting a 12 in frisbee through a 12 in slot doesn't seem very likely. Shooting vertically will limit you to shooting at the mid goals or lower.

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by Gregor

How do you know you need to flip them?

Because they don't fly nearly as well when they're upside down.

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

Because they don't fly nearly as well when they're upside down.

Who said they need to fly? Do you have a prototype shooter yet? How do you know they don't fly nearly as well upside down? Do you see my point?

[tj1673]

I'm not entirely sure of the disc that is actually being used because I have not gotten to see one yet, but, from playing Ultimate Frisbee, I can say that frisbees do NOT fly well upside down (unless you bomb them, which is terribly inaccurate and has poor consistency). Now, I'm not sure how well they would work out of a shooter, but I imagine that even with a consistent machine, they won't fly well upside down.

In some tests today, we found a correctly launched frisbee flies perfectly well, upside down or right side up.

[tj1673]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

In some tests today, we found a correctly launched frisbee flies perfectly well, upside down or right side up.

Hm. Never would have guessed that. Good to know!

[ehfeinberg]

Originally Posted by SuperNerd256

In some tests today, we found a correctly launched frisbee flies perfectly well, upside down or right side up.

Being an Ultimate Player, I can say that disc's do fly differently if they are upside down. When a disc is upside down, it tends to not fly as far and floats more. Also, a Frisbee thrown upside down tends to wobble to either side.

Because of this, a disc is only thrown upside down in Ultimate if the thrower wants the disc to float down slower. This technique (either through a hammer/thumber/scoober) is often used to get the disc around/over a cup.

When we go to competition, many of the human players will be throwing these types of throws in order to get the disk over the 8 foot high wall. With the float these throws generate, it is extremely difficult to get the disk into a vertical target. This makes the chance of a human player scoring next to nothing.

[tj1673]

Originally Posted by ehfeinberg

Being an Ultimate Player, I can say that disc's do fly differently if they are upside down. When a disc is upside down, it tends to not fly as far and floats more. Also, a Frisbee thrown upside down tends to wobble to either side.

Because of this, a disc is only thrown upside down in Ultimate if the thrower wants the disc to float down slower. This technique (either through a hammer/thumber/scoober) is often used to get the disc around/over a cup.

When we go to competition, many of the human players will be throwing these types of throws in order to get the disk over the 8 foot high wall. With the float these throws generate, it is extremely difficult to get the disk into a vertical target. This makes the chance of a human player scoring next to nothing.

About what distance does it take for the hammers/bombs to level out when thrown "correctly"? Would it be feasible to throw them as a hammer and have them land in the alliance pyramid after leveling out?

[ehfeinberg]

Originally Posted by tj1673

About what distance does it take for the hammers/bombs to level out when thrown "correctly"? Would it be feasible to throw them as a hammer and have them land in the alliance pyramid after leveling out?

It defiantly is feasible for a Hammer hit/land in the top of the alliance pyramid. I could probably hit the goal pretty often. However, there is a pole and chain in the middle of the goal, with a piece of polycarb on top of the pole. This thing will cause a lot of the discs bounce right out. Also, I don't know how high the walls are for the goal, but most likely the disc would just the bottom of the goal and bounce out.

Clever idea, and I'll try my luck at accomplishing this feat.

[protoserge]

Do you even need to pick them up? Make sure you take into account time to pick up, orient, store, retrieve your next frisbee and score vs. getting a full load from the feeder, getting to position, scoring, then returning to the feeder.

You may find that picking frisbees up is not worth the time and effort.

I'm not saying one way is incorrect, only that there are many things that should be considered when making decisions on how to play the game.


To help answer your initial question: have you touched/felt/manipulated an actual game piece yet? That will tell you pretty quickly how to go about what you want to be done, then you convert what you would do into machine motion.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by ProgrammerTori

Remember the high goal is only a foot gap. The frisbee I think is approximately that size as well. If you shoot the frisbee vertically, getting a 12 in frisbee through a 12 in slot doesn't seem very likely. Shooting vertically will limit you to shooting at the mid goals or lower.

The disc is 10 5/8" and will fit nicely vertical in the upper goal, and may actually be able to skip in when it hits the top/bottom.

Originally Posted by stinglikeabee

Do you even need to pick them up? Make sure you take into account time to pick up, orient, store, retrieve your next frisbee and score vs. getting a full load from the feeder, getting to position, scoring, then returning to the feeder.

You may find that picking frisbees up is not worth the time and effort.

I'm not saying one way is incorrect, only that there are many things that should be considered when making decisions on how to play the game.


To help answer your initial question: have you touched/felt/manipulated an actual game piece yet? That will tell you pretty quickly how to go about what you want to be done, then you convert what you would do into machine motion.

Considering the travel time to/from the loading zone and the number of discs that will be on the floor due to missed shots, it may be worth while to pick up from the floor (this, of course, assumes an efficient way of picking the disc from the floor).

In the end, your strategy/capabilities should drive this part of the design.