We tried our idea for a “ball magnet” basically a way to POSSESS the ball.
Have fun!
How does the robot do that??? According to the Youtube post, it has something to do with the wood, but it sounds like there is a vacum behind it.
I think its that the conveyor belt is running, which pushes the ball into the block of wood.
It appears to me that something that is not spinning when they do the close up starts spinning when they pull the camera away. 
Nice Work!
That’s quite impressive. I’m assuming you don’t break the 3" rule from the front of the roller to the piece of wood. I ask because it looks pretty deep in the video (not that I can tell much from that angle).
This is set up to demonstrate the principle, and use the old robot with no modifications other than screwing in a piece of wood. When implementing this on the new robot, we will take all the rules into account.
I guess that Robocup robots come standard with “Ball Magnets” too…
We’ll get our ideas wherever we can 
This is close to something we are considering implementing.
Your robot still looks intimidating.
how exactly does this not break the rules, you are controling the direction and position of the bal???
You are POSSESSING the ball, which you are allowed to do. <G43>.
This is how.
POSSESSION: Controlling the position and movement of a BALL. A BALL shall be considered in POSSESSION if, as the ROBOT moves or changes orientation (e.g. backs up or spins in place), the BALL remains in approximately the same position relative to the ROBOT.
<G43> ROBOT BALL POSSESSION - ROBOTS may POSSESS only one BALL at a time. Violation: PENALTY.
Please read your rules.
Very nice we should have some video up sometime this weekend of our endeavors…
It’s ridiculous how many people I have heard point out the fact that some new design POSESSES the ball. Thank you for pointing out something that is legal people! lol :rolleyes:
is it a roller spinning backwards
when we did ours we spun the ball into the robot no matter what direction we traveled
Here’s what were doing…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Nb9NAxdeE.
We are building a full scale prototype with Banebot 20:1 26mm gearmotor and their 3 7/8 30A green wheels. Our students have played with this concept using one 20:1 Banebot gearmotor and a soccer ball. That playing was promissing enough for us to order the parts for a full size prototype that we are going to mount on our prototype holonomic drive.
Yes Fredi, it’s just the intake roller trying to suck in the ball, but there’s a piece of wood blocking the ball so it can’t go all the way in. Just a quick and dirty test of the roller idea to POSSESS the ball. We need to play with it more to optimize it, and fit it into the new robot chassis, but it works well enough as is that we are confident we can use the concept.
see, we did get one simple prototype done
Nice job
I actually bought that same exact soccer ball yesterday. The Wilson HEX size 5 soccer ball
Im not sure, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to try experimenting on carpet instead of a hard floor
Cool. We did the same thing with our 2009 robot.
We got most of our inspiration from here => http://www.techunited.nl/index.php?p=11
If you mount some slides on either side of the ball you can even turn with it.
Running it on carpet changes things. Its harder to get the ball to spin on carpet, and if it stops spinning you lose control. Using small wheels instead of a board will allow it to spin more easily.
Here’s another video showing the concept in action in Robocup juniors…http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJAue5eAOkQ