Ball auger/screw

[WarehouseCrew]

How do you move a ball horizontally (eg. ball auger/screw) within a robot? We are thinking about a wide robot to allow a bigger opening for picking up balls off the floor. When our robot "captures" the ball, we need to the position it (transition to) so that it can be elevated in a specific area of our robot (eg. a vertical lifting device using belts, tubing, etc.). The vertical lifting mechanism will then place the ball(s) in a rack that feeds a throwing device.

Would a rotating shaft(s) covered with a spiral (eg. creating a screw's thread) material work? What type of material would work for something like this?

Other suggestions welcomed.

[Gray Adams]

It's a nice idea if you can find the space for it. Some of the 2009 lunacy bots used a helix shaped column to transport their balls to the top, so you should take a look at those.

[StevenB]

A ball auger is a great idea, and it's been used effectively by many teams, most recently in 2009 (Lunacy) and 2006 (Aim High). However, in both of those years, robots were allowed to pick up as many balls as they could hold, and an auger provided a simple mechanism to hold and manipulate a ton of balls. Because of the 3-ball limit this year, I think a shorter pathway will be more effective and take up a lot less space in your robot.

You can use belts, rollers, brushes, wheels, or other devices to move the balls within your robot, both horizontally and vertically. Even gravity and a ramp can work under the right circumstances. Often teams will use a roller that grabs the top of the ball and a wedge that scoops the ball off the floor while maintaining pressure against the roller to pull the ball off the floor. Once the ball is up and into your robot, you can do almost anything.

Browse around CD-media for a while and you'll see tons of designs.

[Dr Theta]

I may be wrong, but I think you are talking about adding a screw-like coil to an intake roller causing the ball to center or to translate to another position along the roller. I believe Wildstang's 2009 robot had this along with many others.

[WarehouseCrew]

You are correct that we are trying to position the ball to the center or perhaps one side.

For those of you who have seen a farm combine work, it uses a wide pick up mechanism (eg. corn head or bean head) and has a rotating shaft (each side has auger/screw to push to the middle) at the back of the head to pull the grain to the middle of the combine.

I could not find a picture of Team 111 Wildstang, but the video made it look like they had side plates that funneled the ball to the center.

[Dr Theta]

Here is a picture of their 2009 bot from CD's Media: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32952

As you said it appears that they are using angled plates in addition to the spiraling. Here is another picture of the rollers: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/32855

We are also planning on doing something like this to our initial intake leading to our conveyor system. I hope those links help as a proof of concept. Good luck! We'll see you at 10k Lakes and hopefully at a pre-ship scrimmage.