As our physical robot went through different versions, so did our strategy.

Strategy version 1.0 dealt with creating a sorter, where the robot would drive to the ball locations, pick up all the balls, and then sort them by color. We decided that, due to time constraints, it would be wiser to go for a simpler solution.

Strategy version 2.0 incorporated the idea of pushing the balls rather than picking them up and sorting them, an idea that we stuck with through the final version of the robot and that we felt was the most efficient. In 2.0, we planned to put IR photoreceptors along the center, and the robot would use them to follow the black lines on the board after first scoring the easy two points by aligning to the center then backing up into the scoring region behind it. However, the photoreceptors weren't cooperating enough, so we ditched the idea.

Major strategy version 3.0 (we say "major" because it's more like version 6.3, but all the other versions had such minor changes it'd make more sense just to clump them together into this one) was the simplest but most effective: random luck. After orienting itself and backing up to score the first 2 points, it would go straight until something hit it's front bumpers (switches). After that, it'd back up then turn 80 degrees and start over again. For whatever reason [luck], this strategy worked best for us, and even during the final competition, the robot came close (within half an inch) several times to scoring and voting several more times than under any other strategy. Guess luck doesn't hurt.