816 - 90% Complete (Video inside)

[J_Miles]

I think cycle time will be a big deal, but I also think that there could be serious benefits with creating a system that easily obtains game pieces from the human players:

1. There is not contention for the tubes dispensed by the human players

2. Those tubes are ALWAYS in the same location, with little to no variance, and can be fed directly into a robot's gripper with a significant amount of precision

I feel like with a large number of teams, there might be something in taking the extra few seconds to go to the human player's station because it has the capacity to save lots of time over trying to acquire a game piece that is on the floor with the drivers having only an obstructed view of it. At the same time, I'm fully aware that there will be teams with a human player who can throw game pieces consistently to a spot, and those robots will be able to immediately pick up and place the tubes. I think, though, that most teams will find some balance right in the middle, between slow floor pickup and reliance on the human player.