I have no idea if this is actually possible but does anyone think this design could work… I haven’t exactly thought through the no. of motors actually needed but any ideas?
This is basically what we were thinking XD
Just not sure about the chain lift though.
Why do you want the pylons to go that high?
It isn’t necessarily about the pylon being high but rather the fact that it’s the only place to attach a claw
What about a passive pylon capture on the drive with an active upwards for the 4-inch bump? But you would need a linear lift. The problem, I think, with the drawn design is mounting the pylon captured on the arm. If the lift is lifting the pylon capture and the cone mover at the same time the height bottleneck would be the chain bar. I understand that you can release the pylon and stack without supporting the stack but I don’t think that’s what the OP’s idea was.
Edit: I am assuming this is an internal stacker.
This looks like it should work. From what it looks like, it seems that you have a DR4B. However, instead of the claw to hold the pylons on the lower four bar, wouldn’t it be better to use two standoffs or something to slide under the pylon since they have a thicker part at the bottom. Then when you raise the lift, the pylon would go with it. Obviously you would need to have some more security so you can drive around without it falling off, but that might be a good idea. What do you mean about the chain lift though? Could you provide some clarification?
The problem with attaching the Mobile Base to the arm itself is that it severely limits the number of Cones that you can stack on it before you cannot stack anymore. Looking at this design, it only seems like you’d be able to stack 2 or 3 Cones before having to place it.
Something like that could work, but it looks like you have a few kinks to work out. If the mobile goal is moving up with the lift, as well as the chain bar, then both of them are going to stay relative to each other(on the Y axis/up and down). This means that as a stack gets higher on the mobile goal your chain bar won’t be able to get high enough to reach the stack where as if you had the mobile goal at your drive level the lift will be able to compensate for the higher stack along the Y axis.
There’s also the problem of the chain bar not staying relative to the mobile goal along the X axis(left and right). If the lift is say halfway up, the chain bar may be just the right length to rotate back and have a cone right over the mobile goal but if you lift higher up then the chain bar is going to move farther away from the mobile goal(along the X axis) and when rotated back, it’s now going to be too far out to score a cone on the mobile goal.
Just a few things to think about 
What about…
That looks like it’ll work
The problem with that idea is that the Mobile Goal will get in the way of the Cone when it’s being picked up.
I was assuming he wasn’t going with an internal stacker with that drawing…
Are you doing an internal stacker? Or just picking up a cone and then driving to the mobile/stationary goal?
This looks close to 62 Skyrise bot at worlds. A DR4B with a chain bar on top. Pull the mobile goal behind you while grabbing the cones in front of you.
Some sort of passive intake for the cones would be nice.
I think putting the mobile goal claw on the back of the 1st stage of the four bar is brilliant. You describe a bunch of reasons why this is great, but the most important one that stands out to me is the lack for compromise gearing. If the mobile goal were to be lifted from the front, it would effectively be powered by half the original motor’s force. But if you put it on the back, half the height distance is traveled in the same amount of time, effectively meaning you can lift twice as heavy things with the back claw. That way, you don’t have to compromise on your hearing between tourqe and speed (as much). Awesome idea!
Improved idea
What if there was a flip-out forklift type thing that came out from the chassis? I’m not really sure how to describe it, but there are two little areas where some C-channel might fit under the mobile goals. The forklift arm could be attached to a pulley system higher up on the robot, so you could lift it up and carry it over the zone bars.