Was browsing around McMaster and found this picture.
It seems that McMaster …Team #8911 (the 1st four digits of the product number) has allready solved the problem and built a robot frame and ball dumping device!
http://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/114/gfx/large/8911tp1l.gif
Only sells for a little bit over $2000!!!:ahh:
Maybe it will help to inspire some teams!
but those aren’t rover wheels 
Can you really tell that from the picture?
If those are rover wheels that thing is WAY too tall to be FRC legal.
“The images are illustrative only and may not reflect every detail of the product”.
At least, that’s what they say. I think they’re hiding the details to maintain their competitive advantage.
Hey, how come 8911 doesn’t have a Blue Alliance entry??
But how does it load balls off the ground?
I’d guess it is just loaded by human players.
Do you HAVE to pick them up from the ground?
no it isn’t required that a robot be able to pick the “rocks” and “cells” up off the ground. given the fragility of the orbit balls in this competiton, picking the balls up without breaking them will be and interesting challenge for the teams that decide to take that road.
and to reduce bias, the human loaded aspect in this game is also rather risky. while it is much simpler to design an open hopper on the robot, the simple fact that you r own alliance would be throwing balls at you robot to reload it leads to the possibility of them accidentally leand them in the trailer as well.:ahh: but the reverse is also true, the other alliance could accidentally reload your bot instead of hitting the trailer.
Hmmm, a-la Descent video game series… if only we could circle-strafe!
Oh wait…maybe some of us will 
Even though you have $3500 to spend no one item can be over $400