We went with the most efficient design strategy we could think of. Instead of driving our robot around and dumping balls, we chose to park in front of the dispenser and roll them down ramps to the goals.

To simplify things, we only aimed for Goal’s 1 and 3, those two being symmetrical across the two boards. Our strategy did not score the highest points with all the balls, but we could process balls as fast as they could be dispensed, thus ending the game early and preventing the other team from dumping their captured ball load.

Our design and code was broken down into three key phases of success:

Phase I: Drive to the Spot...

Phase II: Deliver the Ramps...

Phase III: Sort the Balls.