Chief Delphi - belaying device

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Re: belaying device

Time to recruit some football players for your drive team? :D

(sorry, I just had to...)

Re: belaying device

This is the part of the rules that seems VERY badly thought out to me. The problem in our case is the 90 lbs of robot is at a height most of our team can't reach. When it's attached at the top of the pyramid, it's very hard to lift it up and off from below due to the height and the 60 degree angle.

If there can be no pressure put on the belaying line, than we need to get taller drivers I guess. The fact we can't bring out anything to stand on or assist us just makes it worse. I think this will be a rule change after week one IMO.

-Mike

Re: belaying device

The year of tall strong adult field coaches?

Re: belaying device

This is one of the things I like most about our design. The team needs to be able to lift the robot about an inch, and the fixed hooks will automatically retract. Lowering the robot back down, the moving hooks will grab the bar, and they can lower the robot with assistance from its winch system (there's a large enough ratio in the gearbox to provide some resistance to backdriving the winch). At that point, the robot will be at roughly waist height, allowing it to be removed much easier.

Hopefully, this is something that climbing teams have been thinking about throughout the season!

Re: belaying device

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wetzel (Post 1231473)

Tell your drivers to hit the gym. 80 pounds of weight split between two people is only 40 pounds each. You have at least three weeks before competition, you can see real gains in strength in that time, and if you are a mid to late competition, you could have more than two months for strength training.

If your drivers can't safely take the robot down, you will likely get a yellow card, especially if you have trouble every time you go out there. You don't want a yellow card.

Wetzel

Obligatory "Bro, Do you even lift?" post.

40 pounds on both ropes per person isn't too much. I'm just afraid that the points of attachment may not be secure on some robots. Better do some nice stress tests.

Re: belaying device

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wing (Post 1231569)

Do note that the drivers will not be lifting or lowering by the ropes, they will need to grab the robot, lift it, and lower it on their own. The rope is just a belay: it will allow one person, who is a trained field person, to halt the fall of robot if the drive team drops it.

Wetzel

Re: belaying device

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wetzel (Post 1231473)

Quote:

Originally Posted by BugByte (Post 1231470)

We discussed the difficulty in lowering our robot at length yesterday. Our robot is really tall and a level 3 climber. We set up a belay system with 80 pounds of weight at the height our robot would be and none of our prospective drivers could keep it up without putting weight on the belay line. If the robot falls and pivots there is wide radius where people could get hurt. I'm really curious about how this is going to work out with all the chaos on the field. Happy to not be in a week one competition this year.

It was only one person holding the 80 pounds. Since our robot will be near 150 pounds with bumpers and battery, this is a little more than each person will have to hold. I think we will definitely see some rule changes after week 1. It would really be a shame to not use the best drivers because they're not strong enough. I have seen people in wheelchairs, middle school students, very short students, adults with bad backs, etc. on drive teams before.