Who’s the best small ball herder?

[James114]

-I have been wondering who so far has been able to move the small balls around the best.
-which team can collect them from the ground effectively.
-about how many balls per round can they put thought the chute.

Chief Delphi - They sorta suck up small balls into their holder and dump them into the corral - 100 pecent effective as far as I can tell.

[Andy A.]

95.

Once they got the kinks worked out, lebanon proved once again they are the granddaddies of ball pickup devices. The bot is pure Lebanon. Plywood frame, two wheeled drive (over 8 fps) high speed rollers and a perfect weight balence. This 'bot just screams.

I've watched them deliver such a high volume of balls that the human players can't shoot them fast enough before getting another load of balls.

Notice how much 885's bot looks like a 95 bot? No accident. Now if we can just get her running as wel..


-Andy A.

[Jon Anderson]

I saw 2 really good ball herders at the Midwest Regional we attended.

Team 469 (our alliance partner ^_^) and Team 45 both had outstanding ball pickups. Both of them could suck the balls off the ground with ease and manipulate the 2x just as easy.

[Peter Matteson]

We don't heard so much as carry but check out what the other teams said about 177 in Philly. Anyone whose seen us in action will agree we are on of the best small ball handlers.

[Steve W]

Don't forget Team 33. These guys are awesome. The best I have seen in 5 regionals that I have attended.

[Ryan M.]

Team 578, Blue Lightning was great at the Buckeye.

[LauraN]

Team 303 sticks out in my mind.

Um, at least I think it was 303. *bad with numbers*

Anyway, the robot that has been nicknamed "The Fridge" sucks them all up, carries them around in their "fridge," and drops them into the human player chute. I don't know exactly how efficient they are, but they're the ones that stick out in my mind as the best small ball herder from the regionals I've attended (SBPLI and Trenton).

[henryBsick]

177- catches end sucks 'em possibly will hang maybe.
303- big balls and sucks 'em
33- sucks 'em up and I hear they roXx0r
1391- Sucks em up, hangs. Coolest rookies ever.
Nuff Said

[Yan Wang]

33 is definitely the most hardcore. The others listed are VERY consistent too but Buzz's 4 speed automatic drive train makes them stronger than any defender I've seen. Their huge box allows them to get at least 15 balls (pick them up very fast or wait under the ball drop for 3-5 to fall in), and their human player is > 95% accurate (just watch the VCU webcast tape)... probably why they've won two regionals so far. Getting > 100 points yourself from just balls is pretty darn amazing. Not to mention that they can now hang pretty darn well too. Watch out.

[Amanda Morrison]

I gotta stick with my Indiana guys and say that 1024 is pretty darn good at what they do. They have a great design, and I can guarantee you that they're who you want on your side should it come down to ball scores.

I can't accurately tell you the maximum number of balls they can hold, but they definitely shouldn't be overlooked.

[fred]

303 and 177 stick out in my mind and I believe that 177 won an award at Drexel for their design, I just forget exactly which award it was. Our team personally had to go against them in round 1 at drexel and they were very effective.

[Jones571]

1st- is defanitly 33 they are the best
2nd- 45 they hold many balls in there frame
3rd- 571 we can hold 6-10 balls in there every time

[Jake177]

Originally posted by fred
303 and 177 stick out in my mind and I believe that 177 won an award at Drexel for their design, I just forget exactly which award it was.

We won the Xerox Creativity award in Philly for our basket (how ironic, a company that makes photocopiers giving an award for creativity).
Keep in mind that a good ball bot is nothing without a good human player. We can hold upwards of 20 balls, deliver them fairly quickly, and our human player rocks.

[Mark Garver]

I have been to 5 regionals this year and have competed at 4 of them.

The best ball herder has to be team 60 (or 254 - their twin).
The best robot that can pick balls off the floor has to be team 33.
The best and fastest human player I have seen has to be 33, at a rate of a ball every 2 seconds. I have seen him shoot 13 in a row, in under 30 seconds.