Re: Most damage sustained
 

<shameless plug> If anyone's interested you can hear more about this particular story at the RoboShow's YouTube page:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLnpDOWpD8Q <shameless plug>

Re: Most damage sustained
 

It's worth hearing.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

I wasn't there when that happened, but from my understanding 1/3 of the wires melted together and fried much of the electronics, including one digital side car.

They bent the shooter back into position, and their dumping arm was fixed after a few matches. They were back at full power by the end of the day.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

On my old team we got speared in Aerial Assist and had some parts ripped out.

What's ironic is that a lot of teams haven't tipped the past years with robot on robot contact, and now that there isn't robot on robot contact there may be more tipping! :yikes:

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Digital Sidecar frying? Raise your hand if you're surprised...

*crickets*

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Last year in our deciding semi-final match our intake/shooter took a couple of bad hits... then fell off.

This year our programmer was testing something on the practice field when he went over the scoring platform and the welds for our center wheel broke. At least our frame is square now :yikes:

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Just going to leave this here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpSgUrsghv4&t=97

Unfortunately, this team was unable to recover from this terrible loss...

Re: Most damage sustained
 

How did I know what that was before I even clicked it?

Back on topic, during the 2012 build season, our team captain and programmer was testing some code while the robot was on a table. Unfortunately, said robot was also not on blocks, and the resulting crash was heard throughout the school. Many axles and a frame were badly bent that day, and a "robot no more than one foot off the ground at any time" policy was quickly put in place.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Can 2011 minibots be included in this damage discussion?

I know I saw a large amount of minibots emit copious amounts of white smoke...

Re: Most damage sustained
 

#suchdestruction....I weep for their loss.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

The last qualification match of the 2008 Philadelphia regional, this happened. We ended up as the #8 alliance captain, meaning we were in the very first match of eliminations. Talk about a rushed fix over lunch.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Of course.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

We have not ever sustained damage that put us out of competition for the entire event. Yes we have had some easy to repair metal bent but one of the kids jobs is to design the robot to sustain the games environment. We have bent axles when that was an easy fix.

I believe this is all part of the game and developing you strategy of how to play the game. In real world one must look at all the variables when developing a product and incorporate them into the design.

This years game with no defense is rather boring and I feel does not challenge the kids to build for a bad environment.

We have always protected our electronics even this year under polycarb so if a tote falls it will not damage them.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Oh man those minibots. At our first competition one of them went up and hit the top with enough force to scrape the battery cover plate into the battery, resulting in a ball of smoke falling from a 10-foot high drop (very much like BX 2013). One of the volunteers quickly removed it from the playing field. That was the same volunteer who turned off power to the 2013 robot.

At our second 2011 event, our mini bots kept going up and down the pole. We were the only team who could win 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th place in one match. It was fun for the crowd to watch, but usually resulted in motors burning out (we hadn't thought about using a 7.5 amp fuze until after that). We eventually found out that the flat light switch we were using to turn it off at the top was weak enough to switch back on from the force of the fall.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

That is true, I remember one of our little vex robots now named hammer time tried to pick up a 2 pound rubber mallet, which it did, but it slipped and committed suicide by hammer, the mallet smashed the battery connector.
Now think, that little bot could barely handle a 2 pound mallet, just think,what a 120 pound bot could do going full speed at your robot. The electronics are the most important, because the frame, is always fixable one way or another, but if you smash up your control system, you can't always fix it