Who has the best small ball capabilities? There were so many teams to choose from! Some could catch, some could hold a ton, some could just push really well!
Catcher - 93, [EDIT]1241*[/EDIT] (i actually think that too, they just slipped my mind lol)
Gatherer - 33, 45, 571
Pusher - 254, 60
1241 also had an excellent ball catcher
I would have to say 93 as being the best small ball manipulator overall. They are able to catch all, or almost all of the balls when dropped, and they’re hard to move out of the way.
How about some examples!? I’d love to see some other small ball handlers from other divisions.
I wasn’t watching a lot of the matches, but here are a few matches from Currie that show these machines at their best:
Team 175, Buzz Gathering Small Balls:
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2004/movies/cur/cur_fm1.wmv
Team 461 Westside Boiler Invasion Gathering Small Balls:
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2004/movies/cur/cur_qf4m2.wmv
Matt
93 and 469 were two of the best small ball bots in galileo… however i believe that 469 may have been better at small balls even though they didnt catch because they had excellent delivery. 93s delivery was very comical the way they would shake their entire robot, however it seemed to take most of the match to get all of those balls out. Did you guys have a special button you pressed to make the robot shake? I believe 177 had one of those in 2000
I would have to say that under gatherer’s were 1024, 461, and 175
We (1018) decided to gather also, and we can spit them out and have them go into the slot from more that 10 ft out.
Yes, 461 was also one of the best ball handelers I’ve seen. We paired up with them at the MWR…and were amazed at how well their collecting mechanism worked. Also, the great thing about them is they can do more than just the small balls.
Here’s a good video showing us herding. We didn’t herd for very much time because we wanted to leave time to test all functions since we were having problems in other matches.
http://www.soap.circuitrunners.com/2004/movies/new/new_036.wmv
I’m surprised no one has mentioned 95 yet. Maybe I am a little biased being a former student, but still…
I havn’t seen any team manage to combine the speed, rollers and plywood that 95 keeps putting out. Once their driver tamed the beast, watching matches was acutally fun again! Those folks in Lebanon just know how to pick up balls like no one else, IMHO.
-Andy A.
I personally think that 33 had the setup. Suck the balls up fast, spit 'em out fast, hold a ton. leet.
However, I also liked the approach used by 21 and a few other teams (whose numbers escape me). I recall one of the teams I can’t remember catching every single ball on the field. Only thing is, I’m yet to see a perfected method of getting the balls into the chute. Outside of that, leet.
Then again, I only saw robots from Palmetto and Archimedes. So I may be biased or blind–your choice.
33 is the best gather without a doubt. 177 is also good at capturing and gathering them too.
I’d have to go with 33 and the team that made it to the finals (possibly won it)… The robot with the multiplier grabber with 4 prongs… I have no idea the number though…
yes we had a button we would press to shake the robot, we called it OC mode (out of control).
93, 1241, and I believe 1 also had ball drop robots. I liked 93 because of their ability to stay under the drop, but 1241 had faster delivery.
177, 469, 45, 173, 492, and 461 all picked up small balls using rollers and the like. So I liked ours best…but I’m really biased 
, but the technokats system was really great, too.
I remember liking how wildstang (111) herded extremely effectively with their swerve drive, too. Acutally…so many robots herded that those capabilities are far harder to remember.
In general…I was surprised at the lack of robots who were designed to deal with the small balls…but all the ones who intended to, worked very well! 
95 was definitely a good robot and very well made, and made on the same lines as 33, with a good gatherer…i think they deserve credit for a good job esp at Palmetto with that 8th seed in the finals, however because they did not make an appearance at nationals they seem to have slipped everyones minds…
33 is without a doubt at the top of this list. Their design was simple and effective. They could zoom around the field with ease and even incorporated a hanging device into an already super robot. Sturdy, strong, reliable: everything you could ask for in a robot.
Thanks for the props, the bot you’re thinking of is 469.
I liked the push out side panels of MOE for herding. Also, all of the other robots that had flare-out side panels. The good basket teams were 93 and 469.
33 hands down… not only were they as fast as 45 or 571’s mechanisms (granted that 571 could really shoot those balls out fast), they could wait under the ball drop to get 3-6 balls and they had AN AMAZING DRIVETRAIN which was dominating for a small ball manipulator. You could play defense, but they were stronger. 45 and 571 get mad props due to their 2x ball abilities though.