ball cannon???

[XXShadowXX]

I think the most efficient robot will be one that can not only scope up balls, and dump them into nearby trailers but...
track oposing trailers autonoumly, and launch balls across the feild into said trailers

[sdcantrell56]

I know we are fully planning on a fully turreting ball launcher. We will also attempt to track the opposing trailers at all times and have the computer handle all the shooting. If no one has tried it yet, it is quite easy to make the balls in the trailer. We are also planning a very quick ball harvester and large hopper so we can easily corral balls as well. I don't think launching balls from any distance will be easy, but some teams will undoubtedly be able to accomplish this task, and the best of these will be the champions. This is of course just my opinion.

[Petey]

My $.02? You will see almost no successful launchers this year. A few teams will pull it off, and we will marvel at them and slap our forheads and say OF COURSE, but most of the most successful teams will find a way to get balls reliably and quickly to the human players (including all four empty cells) and then have a human player who is absolutely golden scoring goals.

Someone namedropped Aim High; I'm thinking more like 2004 here.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Petey

My $.02? You will see almost no successful launchers this year. A few teams will pull it off, and we will marvel at them and slap our forheads and say OF COURSE, but most of the most successful teams will find a way to get balls reliably and quickly to the human players (including all four empty cells) and then have a human player who is absolutely golden scoring goals.

Someone namedropped Aim High; I'm thinking more like 2004 here.

I seem to remember people saying this about hurdling last year, too.

[Enigma's puzzle]

I seee the teams that have been around a lot longer will have an advantage and will be more likely to build a succcessful shooter, EXCEPT there will be a few teams that find and make simple shooters. the rest of us that didn't attempt it because of complexity will hit ourselves.

And of course thier will be a fair amount of unsuccessful failures.

[2241]

Originally Posted by Petey

My $.02? You will see almost no successful launchers this year. A few teams will pull it off, and we will marvel at them and slap our forheads and say OF COURSE, but most of the most successful teams will find a way to get balls reliably and quickly to the human players (including all four empty cells) and then have a human player who is absolutely golden scoring goals.

Someone namedropped Aim High; I'm thinking more like 2004 here.

i agree with this guy. there will be no successful launchers, however that doesn't mean there will not be launcher like items used, however i don't agree that the human players will have to be the reliable scorers. it will come down to dumping, if you can get a cage to dump with enough force, it will create a shotgun effect, and will score more effectively than anything else.

[AlexD744]

I think with the openings in the balls there would be very little accuracy from a shooter especialy from a moving target. There air passing through the ball would veer it in a different direction every time.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by AlexD744

I think with the openings in the balls there would be very little accuracy from a shooter especialy from a moving target. There air passing through the ball would veer it in a different direction every time.

We prototyped a shooter yesterday, and were able to get it to go 6 feet consistently within a 20-degree or so spread. Now all we have to do is adjust the speed, angle, and have a decent feeding mechanism. We should have an accurate shooter out to 10 feet or so...but 10-15 foot shots are our strategy anyways. It's possible, even with how squishy the balls are -- I'll post a picture sometime next week.

Originally Posted by 2241

i agree with this guy. there will be no successful launchers, however that doesn't mean there will not be launcher like items used, however i don't agree that the human players will have to be the reliable scorers. it will come down to dumping, if you can get a cage to dump with enough force, it will create a shotgun effect, and will score more effectively than anything else.

This is a VERY bold claim, especially for someone from such a high team number. I expect we'll see some teams with frighteningly accurate shooting mechanisms. After all, this is FIRST... and we've seen some pretty amazing systems in the past, many that no one thought could be done.

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

This is a VERY bold claim, especially for someone from such a high team number. I expect we'll see some teams with frighteningly accurate shooting mechanisms. After all, this is FIRST... and we've seen some pretty amazing systems in the past, many that no one thought could be done.

While I believe the number of highly accurate, reliable, and efficient cannons will be few and far between, I believe there will be a number of very successful designs.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by 2241

i agree with this guy. there will be no successful launchers, however that doesn't mean there will not be launcher like items used, however i don't agree that the human players will have to be the reliable scorers. it will come down to dumping, if you can get a cage to dump with enough force, it will create a shotgun effect, and will score more effectively than anything else.

the concept of shooting here is pretty similar to other situations where industrial solutions have been created. This of a battle ship on rough seas - the gun turrets mounted on the deck are able to compensate for the swells, keeping a constant trajectory lock on their target, even when the ship rolls 30 degrees from one side to the other. Likewise, the targeting system on a jet doesn't just tell you to squeeze your guns when you're pointed right at the guy - it compensates to lead the enemy plane with an intercept vector. A bomber doesn't drop when it's immediately over the target - it plots an intercept vector for the bomb.

If you look closely, you can find tons of examples where similar targeting/shooting/launching systems have been created and work - it's not unreasonable to expect that some teams will be able to achieve this as well. Especially since this technology has been available in military systems for decades.

[eschanz]

but you'll be moving around and the lag between the camera and shooting will through off the entire thing

[XXShadowXX]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

the concept of shooting here is pretty similar to other situations where industrial solutions have been created. This of a battle ship on rough seas - the gun turrets mounted on the deck are able to compensate for the swells, keeping a constant trajectory lock on their target, even when the ship rolls 30 degrees from one side to the other. Likewise, the targeting system on a jet doesn't just tell you to squeeze your guns when you're pointed right at the guy - it compensates to lead the enemy plane with an intercept vector. A bomber doesn't drop when it's immediately over the target - it plots an intercept vector for the bomb.

If you look closely, you can find tons of examples where similar targeting/shooting/launching systems have been created and work - it's not unreasonable to expect that some teams will be able to achieve this as well. Especially since this technology has been available in military systems for decades.

This a great point. I would like to remind people that military could hit targets 23 miles away with there battleships in the 1940's using vacuum tubes, and punch cards we have 400Mhz processor, and a color camera...

Originally Posted by eschanz

but you'll be moving around and the lag between the camera and shooting will through off the entire thing

So make your math to account for it.

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by XXShadowXX

This a great point. I would like to remind people that military could hit targets 23 miles away with there battleships in the 1940's using vacuum tubes, and punch cards

uhhh....I think that was done with mechanical computers and look up tables, since punch cards were used mostly for inventory control and the first vacuum tube computer was way way too top secret to let it go out in the field.

[kaszeta]

After evaluating the ball, I'm pretty sure the pinch-roller mechanism that our team has used before is still viable, but there's definitely a lot less accuracy than in Aim High. I'll probably help the students prototype something if I can get over to their workshop this week.