All of the talk of split rollers made me realize that there weren’t any pictures of a our ridiculous roller/vacuum system in CD-Media.
It didn’t work as well as split rollers apparently did, but it worked well enough to help us win an event.
The rollers are individual sets of three concentric rings that rotate relative to one another. A comb-like structure in the rear maintains their orientation toward the center. These are powered by a single CIM.
In the center, a suction cup with flexible rubber skirt finds and grabs the balls.
Our kicker had a horseshoe-shaped foot that slips around the suction cup to hit the ball.