Balls lodged under bridges??

[littlejimmy1058]

I saw some teams try to get onto the bridge and get over the balls too. It is just one of those things that makes FIRST so much fun to participate in! If there is a ball under the bridge, well.... what will you do?

[BrendanB]

The trick is that teams who lift the bridge are typically on the same side as the direction that the balls come out which means they hit the robots bumper and go right back under or are stopped right at the bottom of the lexan plates and still block the bridge. Our team has a full width pickup and we started to just ram the pickup under the bridge and clear all the balls out in a few seconds.

On idea is if you are on the same side as the balls lift the bridge and quickly drive back so the balls can roll out. Teams aren't giving the balls the time they need to roll out.

[JPM0887]

Our bridge mechanism was only on the corner of our robot, so many times we just knocked the balls off the bridge from an angle without being directly behind it.

[Alpha Beta]

Originally Posted by littlejimmy1058

I saw some teams try to get onto the bridge and get over the balls too. It is just one of those things that makes FIRST so much fun to participate in! If there is a ball under the bridge, well.... what will you do?

You crush them with the bridge and keep going.

Video (Match 91): http://www.more.net/content/2012-qualification-matches

At 2:38 in the video you can see that 967 is dealing with a ball under the bridge. Eventually they give up and go to the other side where they knock a ball into the other side of the bridge as well. 1986 come to the original side and crushes the ball with the bridge while climbing on. We do have to stay towards that end to keep the ball from preventing 967 climbing on after us.

PS. This was the exciting match where all 6 robots end up balanced, 2 on each bridge. Blue has a 19 point lead when red completes the double balance to take a temporary lead. Blue counters with their own double balance (even though only a single was needed) for the victory. Meanwhile the co-op bridge is blocked on both ends by ball adding to the drama previously described.