Beware of R16 your robot design may be too big.

[Dan Richardson]

Originally Posted by M. Krass

That's what I threw together in Solidworks the other day. The rectangle is a robot with full bumpers; the smaller circle is the ball. The angled lines represent a rudimentary claw.

What you have there looks very similar to what I have in my drawings, but with that in mind unless you turn your claw you really can't reach in front of your bot, that to me is the annoying part. You've got a few inches of play, I'm confidant it can be done, just none of the ways I feel are all that simple. I guess you could build a very robust elevator near the front of the bot but then you have a significant amount of weight cantilevered on an elevator which in my experience, elevators really don't like that. I'm a kinematic linkage guy myself, but if to many linkages they can seem to be pretty wobbly which is no fun.

I wish FIRST had went about this a bit different, Its ok when they limit Engineering, but really hate when they limit design and creativity, I feel like they are kind of forcing our hand in a way. But I hope I'm completely wrong. I can't wait to see what everyone comes up with, Heck I can't wait to see what we come up with.