Car Nack Predicts 3/06

[Billfred]

Perhaps the simpler solution is to use a nice and natural part of the planet to our advantage: gravity.

If you can tilt a robot so that it shoots vertically and measure the height from floor to shooter in centimeters, you can have it fire a ball and time how long it's airborne. Throw in some simple math, and bada-bing, you can tell in about ten seconds whether it's legal on the velocity side.

In fact, I'm sure Kevin Watson has been hiding in his workshop doing some black magic with an old RC, some limit switches, and a piece of string cheese to accomplish just that.