Best way to collect balls [off the field]?

[Andy A.]

Here's a hint

-Andy A.

[Tatsu]

http://www.golfmachinery.com/collectors.htm

This looks pretty good, size it up and I think it'll work for this year too..

Tatsu

[Heretic121]

Originally Posted by Tatsu

http://www.golfmachinery.com/collectors.htm

This looks pretty good, size it up and I think it'll work for this year too..

Tatsu

aka i belive 126's 1992 bot...

[sdcantrell56]

I was actually thinking about a golf-ball styyle collector. However, I am worried that it might push the balls away instead of pick them up. Any ideas?

[Taylor]

Was the large non-slip fabric sticky enough to sufficiently pick up the balls or did it have to pin the balls against a side wall to collect? Being a second-year team, we haven't seen a lot of robots in action, and the kids are worried that a conveyor system will bounce the balls away or they may get trapped and just spin on the ground.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by boiler

Was the large non-slip fabric sticky enough to sufficiently pick up the balls or did it have to pin the balls against a side wall to collect?

It is sufficient for the balls to get "pinned" against the carpet by such a collector.

[sdcantrell56]

So are you syaing it will pick the ball up with a conveyor or will it just spin. Also what did team 121 us for the rollers for the conveyor belts?

[Stephen P]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

It is sufficient for the balls to get "pinned" against the carpet by such a collector.

I had been thinking of this exact idea and had that exact worry, but this is reasuring. I think it would be best to have the roller clearance from ground adjustable to some degree as to "fine tune" the mechanism, to ensure the "pinnage".

[Kelvin Ng]

Originally Posted by boiler

Was the large non-slip fabric sticky enough to sufficiently pick up the balls or did it have to pin the balls against a side wall to collect? Being a second-year team, we haven't seen a lot of robots in action, and the kids are worried that a conveyor system will bounce the balls away or they may get trapped and just spin on the ground.

try testing with wood models. I haven't visited my school in ages, so all my tests have been conducted with lego.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

How about a belt along the bottom of the robot, as the center of the robot gets 'stuck' on the top edge of the ramp, just power up the belt and !zoom!.

Remember, the rules state your robot just needs to be off the carpet to score the bonus points. Whether or not you can get to the top of the ramp is totally up to you.

[Masterfork]

what do u think and why either wheels, tracks,ect. ect. and getting it up to the loader this should be intereting because many people think creatively and it is nice to see creativity even though ur team might not be using it on their robot what do u think


also another question "should u use a hopper of some sort also or not what other ways would u do to carry them or increase ur capacity"

and how to load them efficiently?

[Kelvin Ng]

For ball collection:

I've really been stuck on using vertically mounted belts to grab the balls off the ground and drop them off in a hopper. wheels with poles(or whatever you call them) protruding could probably work as well. I don't know how many people of thought of this, but a big shovel could also double as a ball collector and storage. It may even be able to drop balls off as well.

I believe that being able to score in the centre goal will give alliances the edge needed to win. Because of this, I was thinking of incorporating the ball storage with the mechanism that feeds the ball firing device.

[Masterfork]

Originally Posted by Kelvin Ng

For ball collection:

I've really been stuck on using vertically mounted belts to grab the balls off the ground and drop them off in a hopper. wheels with poles(or whatever you call them) protruding could probably work as well. I don't know how many people of thought of this, but a big shovel could also double as a ball collector and storage. It may even be able to drop balls off as well.

I believe that being able to score in the centre goal will give alliances the edge needed to win. Because of this, I was thinking of incorporating the ball storage with the mechanism that feeds the ball firing device.

yes but feeding vertically also is feeding against gravity and it could slip on the balls surface. going up and cause some problems

[Lil' Lavery]

look at bots from 2002 and 2004, tons of good ideas

[Shu Song]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

look at bots from 2002 and 2004, tons of good ideas

A few bots to look at as a starting point are team 121 and 233's from 2002 and team 33's from 2004. All had amazingly efficient ball collection and release mechanisms.