The robot has an extended arm, attached to which is the delivery mechanism. This rests upon the top edge of the 4 in a row set and delivers counters to the correct position on the board one at a time.

The counters are stacked alternately red/yellow on the chute, and when the delivery mechanism motor is switched on, a pole pushes the lowest counter onto a slide, and it slides down into the board.

It was extremely fiddly to get the slide to consistently deliver counters without them jamming, but by trial-and-error I managed to get it to work by using some smooth pieces to make sure the counters are in the right position.
The motor proved too heavy to have on the delivery mechanism itself, so it's positioned further down the arm, and provides torque to the delivery mechanism using a cam-shaft.

The delivery mechanism balances on the egde of the board, and the base of the mechanism slides along the top of the board. I originally tried using wheels, but these would fall off the edges. The side has a little bit too much friction to be perfect, but the base is heavily geared down and uses caterpillar treads so it manages to move OK.

Finally the delivery mechanism was strengthened to ensure it didn't fall to pieces halfway through a game!


The delivery mechanism (rear) showing the pusher device	The delivery mechanism (side)

The delivery mechanism (front) showing the stack of counters (alternate red-yellow)

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