Best way to collect balls [off the field]?

[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.