Best way to collect balls [off the field]?

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

How about a belt along the bottom of the robot, as the center of the robot gets 'stuck' on the top edge of the ramp, just power up the belt and !zoom!.

Remember, the rules state your robot just needs to be off the carpet to score the bonus points. Whether or not you can get to the top of the ramp is totally up to you.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by boiler

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?

It is sufficient for the balls to get "pinned" against the carpet by such a collector.

[Kelvin Ng]

Originally Posted by boiler

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.

try testing with wood models. I haven't visited my school in ages, so all my tests have been conducted with lego.

[Masterfork]

Originally Posted by Shu Song

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.

that is a good idea very creative never thought of that good thinkin

[SURVIVORfan44]

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.

Yeah, I agree with that. I think that there will be many funnels that will be used this year. I can't wait to see what kinds of mechanisms will be used this year.

[Masterfork]

Actually I believe the funnels will pose a problem with jamming.

[BrianR]

Personally, I have to agree, because if balls have to ability to bounce around, even a little bit, at some point some will find a way to get jammed. It is also probable that if there are two balls in the funnel at once, they can get stuck against each other in the "neck" of the funnel. So, some more things to take into account when designing these systems.

[Masterfork]

I would personally recommend if you use a funnel idea would be to use a like actuator or stir stick sort of thing to keep the balls moving and put it to where it will be most effective where the balls are most likely to jam

[Andrew Blair]

I would think that with a reasonable hopper load of balls, just the general jostling of the robot would be enough to know any jams loose.

[sdcantrell56]

So are you syaing it will pick the ball up with a conveyor or will it just spin. Also what did team 121 us for the rollers for the conveyor belts?

[Masterfork]

I would atleast have something moving the balls just to avoid anything from happening and it still would not loose that much energy from doing it. it is just to be on the safe side

[dez250]

FYI i merged multiple threads together that were the same idea to keep the discussion centralized.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by Andrew Blair

I would think that with a reasonable hopper load of balls, just the general jostling of the robot would be enough to know any jams loose.

You'd think so, but the problem ends up being one of weight as well. Too many balls on top can wedge the lower ones quite effectively unless you design to avoid it.

[Kelvin Ng]

I'm just thinking about those toys...that you push around. It has a clear dome, and when you push it around, some kind of mechanism tosses all the coloured balls around. I never owned one myself, so I don't know how it works. That might help stop the jamming. A stir stick is a really funny idea though. I'm just picturing a big wooden stick rotoating around, moving the balls around.

[Stephen P]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It is sufficient for the balls to get "pinned" against the carpet by such a collector.

I had been thinking of this exact idea and had that exact worry, but this is reasuring. I think it would be best to have the roller clearance from ground adjustable to some degree as to "fine tune" the mechanism, to ensure the "pinnage".