Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

Are you saying there are no situations in which the 1/4" lexan ramp can comfortably hold something defined as a robot by the 2012 rules, with an appropriate safety factor and the risk of field damage minimized? To be frank, that simply is not the case. That's the whole reason people are upset - not just publicly on Chief Delphi.

I can't post experience or data - I may or may not have any, but I can only comfortably post about my own team's tests, which we didn't do. My main personal motivation for posting is because I'd like to defend the very engineering-y idea that building creative solutions within specifications is inspiring.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

I have a bridge with a lexan ball ramp, do you? I've stuck a robot under said ramp while not getting anywhere near breaking anything, have you?

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

Furthermore, 3/8" is legally bulletproof for small arms (paraphrasing modern marvels).

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

The GDC isn't a perfect entity and that is why you have to read their rules and decisions with intent rather then literal meaning. The GDC is also a small group of people. The FRC community is a massive group of people. I don't think it's all that fair to blame the GDC or be angry with the GDC when they are many orders of magnitude smaller then the group of people they design the game for. Granted, they did take back something they said nearly a month ago, but you always have to be careful when even the remote possibility exists that the grey areas may be closed up later on with FRC.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

A team who spent the last 5 weeks designing, testing, and building a robot for this purpose definitely has a right to be mad. Maybe nothing will come of it, but by all means, they do have the right to be mad.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

To add on: I'm pretty sure we all know that it is bullet resistant, not bulletproof. We refer to it as bulletproof glass because that is the widely accepted term.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

The thing I'd like to know is how many teams this affected. Being righteously angry at something that affects no one is a wasted effort.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

Bullet proof or not, the lexan sheet ball deflector under what is now defined as the "bridge" is not a viable place to park for endgame points. I would love to hear/see how any team that was going to use the "troll" strategy is dealing with this update and what kind of viable changes in their design might transpire. Seeing how a team faces this adversity in a one week time frame would indeed be inspiring. A community pulling together to offer suggestions and perhaps assistance to a team affected by this update would also be inspirational.:)

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

People and teams were seriously thinking that sitting on the plastic under the bridge was actually claiming that they were "balancing the bridge"? I'll try to apply this to the "grandma test":

team member: OK, grandma, we shoot basketballs to score points, at the end of the game, we get more points for being on the bridge and balancing it.

grandma: But, your little robot just parks itself under the bridge and sits there, while all of the other robots are trying to balance the bridge by being on top of it.

team member: Yeah, but we still count as balancing on the bridge.

grandma: No, that's silly, you don't.

Andy B.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

put the grandma test in the manual, then okay

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

Did you fire bullets at it while it was under the ramp?

Just because you hear it on MythBusters or the CD community describes it as such does not mean it is a widely accepted term. It is not glass and it is not bulletproof. It is known in the military as transparent polycarbonate armor. Calling it bulletproof- you might as well say it is magic glass.

Legally bulletproof for small arms? What is the legal definition of a small firearm? According to whom is it legal? Please show me where the law states this. I know in Canada we have no such laws stating what is bulletproof and what isn't.

Keep in mind my job depends on building things that resist bullets among other fast moving projectiles...

Not at all. I am not contesting its durability when tromped on by robots, I am sure it is plenty durable, although I wouldn't call it a bridge. I am contesting the statement that 1/4" lexan is bulletproof.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

I for one will be including this when I fill out my FIRST survey this year!

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

We know. Not sure why you keep talking about this. We're not stupid.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

Relax- Nobody here is stupid, just misinformed.

Re: Team Update 2012-02-14
 

It's common sense.