pic: 1618 at Palmetto

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by gorrilla

how does it work?

I spy a trap-door?

In theory, at least, we had a robot that could function as both a human-loaded dumper and a floor-sweeper with the ability to take an empty cell directly from the outpost hole. (It's hard to see, but the netting stops just below the right height.) The hole in the side of the robot facing the camera was merely for access to the main breaker.

In practice, we had some issues. Our lower roller detached in some later matches due to a design flaw that none of us caught--the entire roller would simply slide off the BaneBots shaft because there was nothing stopping it from moving axially. We also had a couple of control quirks on the rollers--in at least one match, our upper roller wouldn't run no matter what. (My exact instructions to our operator were "Start mashing buttons!")

For all the issues, this is the first Capital Robotics machine that actually did what we set out for it to do. And, coincidentally, it's the first one not to be named for some practice day calamity. Their season is done, but I'm hoping that The Blackout will be able to make at least one appearance somewhere in the off-season with a little more testing and tuning (and, as the style nit-picker, with the back of our back panel--still showing remnants of its duty as a wall of our 2008 crate--painted properly. )