Beginning the build for the Cap Ball Trapper

By Jayesh and Omar

Task: Give Deadshot flexibility in end game scoring by designing Cap ball launcher

One of the issues we saw in Arkansas was in the lack of flexibility we had in terms of the end game. We efficiently scored balls and beacons, but when our teammate for a specific match could do the same, we lost possible points scored. This led us to conclude that a Cap Ball Trapper, would be necessary for the sole purpose of flexibility. We focused on an extrusion-based system, based on a set from AndyMark. We've rigged up a pair of basic stairway systems, which will form the main lifting mechanism for the Cap Balls, now we have to figure out where to place them.

We followed the Youtube video above to figure out how everything was put together initially, and then expanded from there.

Reflections

The idea of flexibility is a luxury we can consider due to the progress made for the Arkansas competition. The idea is in scoring the maximum amount of points, regardless of the capabilities of our respective partners. The rigs themselves (although they do need some end covers so they don't fall apart) work fine, but we need to figure how it's going to fit into the general scheme of our robot. We have concluded that the rig will require two motors (we're at our limit; hooray traditions). The main goal in finishing this system is in figuring out both its deployment and placement.