Hanging from the bar:

[Frank(Aflak)]

I ran a search for hang, and bar, and found only irrelevant results, so I don't think this is a repost.

My problem: The rulebook says your bot has to be suspended from the bar at the end of the match for the 50 points or whatever.

What if we are suspended from the bar at the end of the match, but as soon as we loose power descend at 1"/second or so . .

Will this count for 50 if we are in the air at the end of the match but slowly descend to touching the floor?

[David66]

the FIRST q&a says that you should build your robot to hang indefinately bwecause it can not be touching the floor until after the judges scores are final...and according to them that will be a minimum of 30 seconds

[jonathan lall]

I believe it was stated more along these lines; objects are expected to come to rest after 10 seconds, but FIRST also stated that it is expected that robots stay there for scoring purposes for at least 30 seconds otherwise you might not get your 50. This is of course understandable.

[ngreen]

As long as you are up during judging.. If it can stay off the ground for a minute you are definitely in the clear.45 second is probably good. What I was wondering is would it be legal to be touching at the end of time and settle up to non-touching in the time before judging. With in a couple seconds after using something like a series of springs.

[jonathan lall]

As long as you are up during judging.. If it can stay off the ground for a minute you are definitely in the clear.45 second is probably good. What I was wondering is would it be legal to be touching at the end of time and settle up to non-touching in the time before judging. With in a couple seconds after using something like a series of springs.

As I just stated, FIRST has said that judging will generally take place after the 10-second 'come to rest period.' If your robot is where it should be by that time, you have nothing to worry about. FIRST has never made a direct ruling as to something which is triggered by power-off (e.g. a solenoid venting), but since you are not controlling the robot after the time ends, there is no problem, and this accoring to the rules so far is 'coming to rest'. Here's a ruling that you may be interested in:

Q:Would a hanging robot be scored if, after being powered down, it periodicaly touches the ground, but would eventually settle in a position where it would not touch the ground?

A:"Eventually" is typically about 10 seconds. If objects have not come to rest by then, the referees may disallow its score.

[Justin Stiltner]

In past years (2000) specifically it was ruled that the judgeing would start after everything has come to a stop... basically if your robot is heading for the floor they will wait to see where it stops... reason has to be applied to this too.. if you cannot easily see that the robot is moveing IE somthing like 1/4" per second or somthing then i wouldent worry as much.. but i think either way i would be a latch on your robot so that when you are up.. your not comming back down. This would eliminate all worries.

[Frank(Aflak)]

In past years (2000) specifically it was ruled that the judgeing would start after everything has come to a stop... basically if your robot is heading for the floor they will wait to see where it stops... reason has to be applied to this too.. if you cannot easily see that the robot is moveing IE somthing like 1/4" per second or somthing then i wouldent worry as much.. but i think either way i would be a latch on your robot so that when you are up.. your not comming back down. This would eliminate all worries.


Makes sense. We will just do a brake or something to prevent it from sliding . . it barely does as is . . . and it doesn't when the power is off, so maybe we will just look at the jumper on the victor and switch it to stop the slide.

I guess testing is in order, but its not a huge problem.


Thanks for the replies.

[Lil' Lavery]

They've judged by the end of all motion on the field in previous years(as previously mentioned). So my bet is, you wont get the points.

[Spikey]

Makes sense. We will just do a brake or something to prevent it from sliding . . it barely does as is . . . and it doesn't when the power is off, so maybe we will just look at the jumper on the victor and switch it to stop the slide.

I guess testing is in order, but its not a huge problem.


Thanks for the replies.
The Speed controller can apply an electronic brake even when the robot is disabled, this prevents the motor from back driving.