The robot with the hopper (electronics removed). We originally considered picking up balls, but decided that it was not worth the extra challenges for short, 40 second periods. The bot weighs about 110 pounds now, so adding extra shielding now does not look likely. Our main challenge now is to program the bot before our programmers leave town for the weekend.
i was waiting for someone to use a trash can! awesome job guys! 
looks good, but just one question. How visable are the balls?
<G13> balls contained in ROBOTs at the Start of a match - Each ALLIANCE will start a match with 40 balls. Each ROBOT may contain up to 10 balls at the start of a match. Any balls not contained within the robot will be evenly distributed between the alliance ball corrals. All of the balls must be contained within the ROBOT’s 28" x 38" x 60" starting volume and must be clearly visible from outside the ROBOT. The Head Referee will require that balls outside of the starting volume be removed. It is the responsibility of the head referee to verify that this rule is satisfied prior to the start of the match.
thats nothing that a good hour with a drill cant fix . . great job 1701.
I would suggest glueing pictures of balls on the outside of the trash can, the refs will never know the difference. No, in all seriousness where do they come up with these rules? Like why do the balls and brain etc have to be visible?
The balls have to be visible so that they may be able to quickly determine that your robot is starting with no more than the 10 allowed balls. The robot controller must be visible for arena troubleshooting.
Refs can look down into the hopper and see the balls – this robot is fine as is in that respect. I would investigate shielding the shooter from contact with other robots, however.
I like the chain pathing on your 4WD. However, I don’t think you guys will be able to turn. Those IFI wheels have very high traction, making a skid steer’s job much harder. The drivetrain geometry doesn’t help much either, as having a longer wheelbase (distance between front and rear wheels) than track width (distance between wheels) makes it near impossible to turn without hopping, if you’re using the same wheels F/R.
I wouldn’t think it would need much more protecting.
Pretty Awesome and it looks very kewl. Don’t change it!
Yes, Shiney is a very sexy beast. Though that old picture can’t do him justice.
We should put up a new pic then, one that shows off Shiny as a “sexy beast,” as you put it.
hey you guys did well at GLR
thanks