Dedicated Empty Cell Handler?

[ChuckDickerson]

Now that the robots are snuggled comfortably in their crates I am wondering how many teams gave their robots a separate dedicated Empty Cell handler mechanism? I mean a separate way to collect, store, and deliver the one Empty Cell you are allowed to possess at any one time. I have seen a lot of pictures and video of robots posted and a many have really cool pickup mechanisms to collect the balls from the floor and store in a hopper to be scored. It is hard to tell most of the time if there is a separate “Empty Cell Handler” or if the plan is to just collect them like Moon Rocks.

Does your bot have a separate dedicated “Empty Cell Handler” and why or why not?

[A Bear]

no, we never though of it lol

[Josh Drake]

No, we thought of it but didn't really have the weight. We plan on collecting and dumping when needed.

[Killraine]

Nope, any balls that we are collecting from the floor will be delivered to our human players, so there is no need to have a separate empty cell handler.

[A Bear]

well we have a dumper but its not really a container....

[XXShadowXX]

My team has built a pseudo empty cell handling system, it holds a said empty cell in the front of the robot, over the collection mechanism, and when we want to eject it, we need to drive the collection mechanism reverse, forward, then reverse and it shoots right out into the airlock. Now the last challenge, convince my team to attempt to collect the empty cell in autonomous. (legal?)

[AlexD744]

Originally Posted by XXShadowXX

My team has built a pseudo empty cell handling system, it holds a said empty cell in the front of the robot, over the collection mechanism, and when we want to eject it, we need to drive the collection mechanism reverse, forward, then reverse and it shoots right out into the airlock. Now the last challenge, convince my team to attempt to collect the empty cell in autonomous. (legal?)

I've been trying to get my team to do that too. And I studied the rules carefully. It is legal, just be careful to make sure the tongs don't get stuck in the robot before it starts to drive again. However, no one listened to me. O and our empty cell holder is our pick up mechanism. They can be delivered in the side and by reversing we eject it to the air lock.

[gorrilla]

1557 has one, its just a servo and some signboard

[EricH]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I've been trying to get my team to do that too. And I studied the rules carefully. It is legal, just be careful to make sure the tongs don't get stuck in the robot before it starts to drive again. However, no one listened to me. O and our empty cell holder is our pick up mechanism. They can be delivered in the side and by reversing we eject it to the air lock.

What tongs? The outpost doesn't have any.

[Ian Curtis]

Yup! I've been really surprised at the lack of Empty Cell carriers. Even if you're down 14 Moon Rocks, two well placed Super Cells can save the day. They'll be huge, especially in the elimination matches.

[Golto]

Team 558 has a function to store empty cells at the bottom of our belt system and direct them right into the airlock. We will even have a light telling alliance partners to give us those empty cells!

[Woody1458]

1458 has a backup plan for empty cells concerning how vital their roll is in the game. unfortunatly our weekend practice turned out not to be enough of an example for us to decide if super cells were important. Our hopper sides are a netting material, so adding empty cell ability would be as simple as adding a bal sized hole in the side of our hopper at the height of the hole.

[Zflash]

1319 has a dedicated empty cell carrier, for anyone that may have seen the robot it was left off puposefully for the scrimmage, because we didn't want to give too much away. Although this method still only had a certain degree of success. We think it will help us greatly.

[Deep Dark]

The pneumatic cylinders we decided to use for them didn't end up arriving until ship day . But (if there is weight) team 2506 will have two, one on each side depending on which way we are coming from (we know you can only hold one at a time).

[rogerlsmith]

Yes, Team 904 has a separate servo driven mechanism to securely transport an empty cell.