The core concepts for our robot revolved around an elevator, a grabber, and a shooter. The elevator design involved two side frames supporting a platform that vertically transports the rings. We initially considered friction-based movement for the platform, which offered the advantages of simplicity (no motors) and reduced rotational axes. However, this approach presented significant drawbacks, primarily unreliability.

Conversely, a motorized solution emerged as the preferred choice. Motorization offered several key benefits: high reliability, rapid pickup speeds, adaptability to various game piece conditions, and the ability to control both vertical movement and platform orientation. While motorization introduced complexities and increased the risk of mechanical failure, these drawbacks were deemed less critical than the advantages it provided.

For the grabber, our initial design proved too slow and was discarded. The new design employed a simple yet effective mechanism: four wheels arranged on two sides, with a total of eight wheels. Each wheel can move forward and backward. The backward movement reels in the ring, while the forward movement propels it towards the target, which also makes it the shooter.

An alternative design however, was for the grabber and the shooter to be separated. The grabber drops the ring onto a platform, which would be the shooter. The platform would have the wheels and it would perform the same. There would be four wheels on each side and they can all move forward and backwards, the backward motion being used to reel it in and the forward motion would shoot it, instead of it all being in one piece.