Balls

Balls are a category of game pieces commonly used by FIRST. Some balls can also be considered [Inflatables], although they are listed here as their "primary category." For our purposes, any spherical game piece is a "ball." 2009 Moon Rocks are an edge case, but are considered balls for this purpose.

Power Cell (2020)

Power Cell

Main article: 2020 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Cargo (2019)

Cargo

Main article: 2019 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Fuel (2017)

Fuel

Main article: 2017 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Boulder (2016)

Boulder

Main article: 2016 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Ball (2014)

2014 Ball

Main article: 2014 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Basketball (2012)

Basketball

Main article: 2012 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Ball (2010)

2010 Ball

Main article: 2010 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Moon Rock (2009)

Moon Rock

Main article: 2009 FRC Season

Description

(Physical description of game piece)

Challenges

(What made this difficult)

Trackball (2008)

Trackball

Main article: 2008 FRC Season

Description

Trackballs were rubber yoga balls with a blue or red fabric covering. one of each color balls on the field had white dots to help vision tracking.

Diameter: 40in

Weight: 7.3lb

Challenges

The maximum footprint of a 2008 robot was 28" x 38", meaning that the game piece had a larger footprint than a robot. With a weight of 7.3lb, it was also relatively heavy for the smaller motors of the time.

Manipulation Strategies

Size Constraints

Robots mostly took one of two approaches to the size of this ball.

1. A manipulator that starts inside the frame perimeter and extends out
2. Holding the ball from the top or bottom, where a manipulator could fit within the 5' robot height limit

Hurdling

The most common methods to hurdle the ball over the truss was to lift the ball up and either toss it with an arm, or simply let the robot's momentum carry the ball.

Some higher-tier teams used linear punchers powered by springs, surgical tubing, or pneumatics.

Noteworthy Robots

FRC1114	FRC233	FRC330
FRC1114 had the most dominant robot of 2008 by a wide margin, and won the world championship.	FRC233 found an excuse to use a pink arm and were Einstein semifinalists.	FRC330 characteristically build a simple, effective arm with a big yellow sprocket. Lost in division semifinals to 1114.