pic: Ball Return- Ball Stuck

[O'Sancheski]

loading photo ...

[billbo911]

OK, just exactly how did that ball get jammed there?

[EricH]

Some robot (was it 888?) kicked it. There's another picture elsewhere showing the path it took.

[Jared Russell]

The ball was kicked from the middle zone, hit the bump, and rocketed in between the pipes, where it stuck.

At least that's my "magic ball theory".

[billbo911]

The wildest shot I witnessed was from our own robot.

We were playing defense in the apposing alliance's home zone. We grabbed a ball and attempted to kick it out of the zone. It must have been one of the more firmly inflated balls that day. It shot out of our bot as hard as I've ever seen it kick, bounced off one of the vertical poles on the tower and back into the opposing alliance's home zone. Then it proceeded to ricochet off the side wall and directly into the goal. We scored against our selves and the ball never touched the floor after we kicked it!

[hektormagee]

Originally Posted by billbo911

The wildest shot I witnessed was from our own robot.

We were playing defense in the apposing alliance's home zone. We grabbed a ball and attempted to kick it out of the zone. It must have been one of the more firmly inflated balls that day. It shot out of our bot as hard as I've ever seen it kick, bounced off one of the vertical poles on the tower and back into the opposing alliance's home zone. Then it proceeded to ricochet off the side wall and directly into the goal. We scored against our selves and the ball never touched the floor after we kicked it!

Wow! You should have bought a lottery ticket that day

[Zach O]

Here is a good video of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un5F088PTyE#t=2m7s

[O'Sancheski]

this is kind of embarrassing... i was on that side of the field for field reset and i didn't even know that thats the way it happened... what are the chances that when 888 kicked that ball, it would get stuck like that

[Ahnxlazyman]

Originally Posted by Zach O

Here is a good video of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un5F088PTyE#t=2m7s

wow I'm still having a hard time believing that happened and you have visual proof!

what caused the balls to "hiccup" at the end and get stuck there? did the lodged ball kick the rails out of place?

[huberje]

Originally Posted by Ahnxlazyman

wow I'm still having a hard time believing that happened and you have visual proof!

what caused the balls to "hiccup" at the end and get stuck there? did the lodged ball kick the rails out of place?

From what I've heard, it seems as though it either pushed the rails apart and slowed the balls down too much or it just acted as a bump itself

It's pretty hilarious though

[jspatz1]

Originally Posted by Ahnxlazyman

wow I'm still having a hard time believing that happened and you have visual proof!

what caused the balls to "hiccup" at the end and get stuck there? did the lodged ball kick the rails out of place?

The stuck ball acted like a speed bump for returning balls. They went right over it, but were slowed down. The first ball over the stuck ball was slowed down just enough to not skip over the horizontal tower rail at the exit (I never did understand why the return track was positioned low enough to hit this horizontal rail, rather than just being high enough to go over it. That was just asking for trouble.) so it lodged there. The following balls did not have nearly enough speed to knock the first one loose, so they accumulated. There may have been some slight effect from the stuck ball pulling the rails down and changing their slope, but it was primarily the speed bump effect.

[Ahnxlazyman]

Originally Posted by jspatz1

The stuck ball acted like a speed bump for returning balls. They went right over it, but were slowed down. The first ball over the stuck ball was slowed down just enough to not skip over the horizontal tower rail at the exit (I never did understand why the return track was positioned low enough to hit this horizontal rail, rather than just being high enough to go over it. That was just asking for trouble.) so it lodged there. The following balls did not have nearly enough speed to knock the first one loose, so they accumulated. There may have been some slight effect from the stuck ball pulling the rails down and changing their slope, but it was primarily the speed bump effect.

Ah makes more sense now. but the ball flying into the rail is so surreal, imagine where the ball would fly if the rail wasn't there!

[BrendanRadabaug]

imagine where the ball would fly if the rail wasn't there!

something like this would happen?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnE0j69_gYk

[pakrat]

Can i just give some credit to the Curie field staff? It did seem to take a little time to figure out what was going, but their very quick reaction of throwing some more balls into the middle zone was very smoothly and quickly put together.

I know that the match was replayed, but kudos needs to be given to the field crew and Head Referee for making a tough call to try and even things out.

[Kellen Hill]

Hmmmm... Now this could be an effective way to stop 469

I would imagine that the ball acting as a speed bump would change the speed of the exiting ball enough that it might not work with 469's redirecting.

I'm sure this is what 888 was going for