Soccer Ball Sold Out

[DtD]

Honestly I don't know what the fuss is about. A socer ball is a socer ball. Our team didn't even consider getting an official ball, we are going to design our robot to use the misc size 5 soccer balls we all have lying around our houses.

I can understand the issue with Lunacy, where the game pieces were very unique and diffrent some anything else.

~DtD

[Tetraman]

Originally Posted by DtD

Honestly I don't know what the fuss is about. A socer ball is a socer ball. Our team didn't even consider getting an official ball, we are going to design our robot to use the misc size 5 soccer balls we all have lying around our houses.

While there is no problem with this line of thinking, you will be giving up valuable understanding of certain variables. You just have to remember that the game pieces that will be on the field will not be the same soccer ball you used to build and practice with your robot. Surfaces, stitching, bounce, and even inflation can pose either drastic or minute differences that could potentially make any of your mechanisms unsuitable.

[rwood359]

Originally Posted by Tetraman

While there is no problem with this line of thinking, you will be giving up valuable understanding of certain variables. You just have to remember that the game pieces that will be on the field will not be the same soccer ball you used to build and practice with your robot. Surfaces, stitching, bounce, and even inflation can pose either drastic or minute differences that could potentially make any of your mechanisms unsuitable.

And don't forget color, if you want to ball handle during autonomous. We're getting the Ice Blue ones - will probably use off the shelf white for ball tracking checkout.

[Vikesrock]

Originally Posted by rwood359

And don't forget color, if you want to ball handle during autonomous. We're getting the Ice Blue ones - will probably use off the shelf white for ball tracking checkout.

Depending on what type of sensor you are using to try and locate the ball, color may or may not be a factor. If we use a sensor to locate balls in autonomous I doubt it is going to be the camera. I think something like an Ultrasonic or IR setup is more the direction I would go.

[David Brinza]

Originally Posted by DtD

Honestly I don't know what the fuss is about. A socer ball is a socer ball. Our team didn't even consider getting an official ball, we are going to design our robot to use the misc size 5 soccer balls we all have lying around our houses.

I can understand the issue with Lunacy, where the game pieces were very unique and diffrent some anything else.

~DtD

The outer surface finish and stitching can vary significantly among soccer balls. Depending how teams choose to interact with the balls, those parameters can have a big effect on the behavior of the ball.

While it may be fun to design a robot that will manage a variety of soccer balls well, we're just trying to develop a design solution for the official game piece. I'm hoping we won't have a repeat of the Poof Balls in Atlanta in 2006 (i.e. a new "game challenge").