Best way to collect balls [off the field]?

[TD78]

Both belts were driven so the balls were sucked up. We used two FP's to drive each belt. The piece of pvc that runs the width was used as a tensioner to help squeeze the belts together and maintain contact with the balls. Feel free to ask any more questions at any time.

-Tom

[Masterfork]

what do u think and why either wheels, tracks,ect. ect. and getting it up to the loader this should be intereting because many people think creatively and it is nice to see creativity even though ur team might not be using it on their robot what do u think


also another question "should u use a hopper of some sort also or not what other ways would u do to carry them or increase ur capacity"

and how to load them efficiently?

[Kelvin Ng]

For ball collection:

I've really been stuck on using vertically mounted belts to grab the balls off the ground and drop them off in a hopper. wheels with poles(or whatever you call them) protruding could probably work as well. I don't know how many people of thought of this, but a big shovel could also double as a ball collector and storage. It may even be able to drop balls off as well.

I believe that being able to score in the centre goal will give alliances the edge needed to win. Because of this, I was thinking of incorporating the ball storage with the mechanism that feeds the ball firing device.

[Masterfork]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Ng

For ball collection:

I've really been stuck on using vertically mounted belts to grab the balls off the ground and drop them off in a hopper. wheels with poles(or whatever you call them) protruding could probably work as well. I don't know how many people of thought of this, but a big shovel could also double as a ball collector and storage. It may even be able to drop balls off as well.

I believe that being able to score in the centre goal will give alliances the edge needed to win. Because of this, I was thinking of incorporating the ball storage with the mechanism that feeds the ball firing device.

yes but feeding vertically also is feeding against gravity and it could slip on the balls surface. going up and cause some problems

[Lil' Lavery]

look at bots from 2002 and 2004, tons of good ideas

[Shu Song]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

look at bots from 2002 and 2004, tons of good ideas

A few bots to look at as a starting point are team 121 and 233's from 2002 and team 33's from 2004. All had amazingly efficient ball collection and release mechanisms.

[Andy A.]

Here's a hint

-Andy A.

[blue_crew]

if you go for the center goal and have a large ball storage capacity, do you think it's worth it to be able to collect balls off of the ground?
i guess what i am asking is would it be more efficient to have your human player fill your bot with balls during the second period while on defense (or any time during the match for that matter)?
that would mean you have to win auto. though to be on defense.

[Shu Song]

Originally Posted by blue_crew

if you go for the center goal and have a large ball storage capacity, do you think it's worth it to be able to collect balls off of the ground?
i guess what i am asking is would it be more efficient to have your human player fill your bot with balls during the second period while on defense (or any time during the match for that matter)?
that would mean you have to win auto. though to be on defense.

IMHO (and I know there are people who will disgree with me), there won't be as many free balls on the ground as compared to games like 2002 and 2004. Rather most of the balls will be controlled by a robot. It's not hard to build a funnel bot and just have a human player continously dump balls into a hopper with the bot right next to the control station. The only balls that will be on the ground are accidental, be it the human player missed the bot or the bot missed the goal.

Plus, if there are any balls on the ground, you can be sure that another bot with a ground loader will be grabbing it too. Cutting down the number of balls that you can get to on the floor.

So while a ground collector would be an easy addition to the bot, I don't think there will be many free balls on the ground to make it worth the effort/money/time/weight.

[Kelvin Ng]

Originally Posted by Shu Song

IMHO (and I know there are people who will disgree with me), there won't be as many free balls on the ground as compared to games like 2002 and 2004. Rather most of the balls will be controlled by a robot. It's not hard to build a funnel bot and just have a human player continously dump balls into a hopper with the bot right next to the control station. The only balls that will be on the ground are accidental, be it the human player missed the bot or the bot missed the goal.

Plus, if there are any balls on the ground, you can be sure that another bot with a ground loader will be grabbing it too. Cutting down the number of balls that you can get to on the floor.

So while a ground collector would be an easy addition to the bot, I don't think there will be many free balls on the ground to make it worth the effort/money/time/weight.

How about throwing balls to the backbot during the defensive period? I see an immense strategic advantage if the backbot is left alone (all 3 offensive robots trying to score). If it can pick balls off the floor (the human players on defense throw all their balls to the backbot), it can plant itself in front of the platform, wait for the offensvie period and score in the centre goal unimpeded.

[Shu Song]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Ng

How about throwing balls to the backbot during the defensive period? I see an immense strategic advantage if the backbot is left alone (all 3 offensive robots trying to score). If it can pick balls off the floor (the human players on defense throw all their balls to the backbot), it can plant itself in front of the platform, wait for the offensvie period and score in the centre goal unimpeded.

Then it would seem that if the bot had some sort of backbaord or other guidance system, the HP can aim for the bot instead of just in the general vincinity, which makes the collection take a lot less time and effort.

[Tatsu]

http://www.golfmachinery.com/collectors.htm

This looks pretty good, size it up and I think it'll work for this year too..

Tatsu

[Heretic121]

Originally Posted by Tatsu

http://www.golfmachinery.com/collectors.htm

This looks pretty good, size it up and I think it'll work for this year too..

Tatsu

aka i belive 126's 1992 bot...

[sdcantrell56]

I was actually thinking about a golf-ball styyle collector. However, I am worried that it might push the balls away instead of pick them up. Any ideas?

[Taylor]

Was the large non-slip fabric sticky enough to sufficiently pick up the balls or did it have to pin the balls against a side wall to collect? Being a second-year team, we haven't seen a lot of robots in action, and the kids are worried that a conveyor system will bounce the balls away or they may get trapped and just spin on the ground.