Most damage sustained
 

In past years, matches have had robot on robot contact.

So, damage had to happen. What's the worst your bot has ever been banged up?

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Last year, our robot was pretty mush completed (except a few programming issues) and the drivers were practicing. The driver drove into a corner of a brick wall in the hallway, and dented the robot a good 2". We were banged up before it was bagged!!

As for this year, our bot hasn't sustained too much damage, the closest scenarios were tipping over while practicing (the driver was testing the tip-ability and bent one of the arms). The only other was a close call in a competition when one of our arms almost got stuck in another robot's drive system... We almost lost an arm, and they almost lost a chassis. But all was good. :)

Re: Most damage sustained
 

2003, Stack Attack: Game was a giant wall of tupperware totes on a raised center platform with ramps on both sides. This was in the IFI controller days with serial cables for tethers.

We ended up moving shops first week of build to some new sponsors. Some of those mentors thought they knew more than they did, unfortunately. We had a practice platform with just one ramp and a cliff on the other side. One of the new mentors wanted to "test" something and enabled a tethered robot with buggy auton code. Robot took off, hit the ramp at full speed, and flew off the cliff before anyone could kill it, ripping the tether port off the IFI controller in the process. Bot was fine besides that, but it was an expensive mistake.

Said mentors also talked everyone into a robot that was split and pivoted in the middle for "suspension". In one match, something happened and one half of the robot got flipped. We maybe be the only FRC team to end a match with half our robot upside down, but zero actual damage.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Last year at Utah our robot got its super structure torn and bent to the point where it was inoperable and a safety hazard to field. This was during eliminations if I remember correctly and we had another regional after that.

Here is the best I could find for comparison sake
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...be&oe=55805174
Here it is post match! (Oh hey that's my arm)
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...b1&oe=558CE540

Compare this
https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.n...b439016f41c2ce
To this
https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphoto...fc&oe=55870C33

And at the end of it all...
I still have no regrets about how it all turned out.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

In the first finals match of FLR 2008 our robot's elevator broke off.
Zoom ahead to 7:54 to watch the carnage.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

How can anyone forget Bedford Express's first match of 2013? A fall from the top of the pyramid which resulted in 1/3 of their electronics fried and their shooter being bent to hell. It was great to see them go back into matches after only missing one or two.

http://youtu.be/AiHcLvFYA1c?t=2m10s

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Sorry. 7:54.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Our 2012 robot sustained the most damage. The front bar was repeatedly hit in the front and on top, causing a very odd shaped bend that we had to hammer back so it would be straight several times. The robot fell off of the bridge and onto its back once during regional season and once during the offseason. The turret/shooter completely fell off of the robot 3 or 4 times during the 2012 Silicon Valley Regional. And yet, it still survived all of that...

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Our blocking bot from last year was repeatedly banged into at full speed by an unnamed (as to not embarrass) powerhouse team trying to prove to the audience they could score on us defending the low goal we wasted about a minute of their time and they never scored in that goal... still have a scar on our body from that encounter..and our alliance won that match...was awesome.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Wow, that fall looks horrific. Poor little bot made it all the way but couldn't hold on. Why did it start smoking at the end? Did it catch fire too? Or was that just electrical smoke

Re: Most damage sustained
 

One time another's robots claw went into our robot and ripped out most of electronics.
Let's just say that was not something I never want to fix again.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

in 2013 we fell from the pyramid when an opposing robot hit us, breaking 2 wheels and their respective planetary gearboxes, and our inch-wide screw that held our elevator mechanism

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Nothing much has happened to our robot, but team 1816 from Edina, the Green Machine, had their robot fall apart with the top part almost falling off in one of their last matches at the Lake Superior regional in I think qm 90. They were really good actually and ended up being 4th (?) alliance captain. They did not win, however they won Engineering Inspiration so they will still be attending nationals.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Not my robot, but I still have nightmares on behalf of 1251 from when their 2012 robot lost it's head a bit: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/37778

Re: Most damage sustained
 

The worst damage I've ever heard done to a robot was 801 and 1592's robots back in 2013 on load in night for the Orlando Regional. Both robots were destroyed when a pickup truck slammed into the back of their trailer and pulverized 1592 while 801's robot was decapitated. Fortunately the student and mentor were unhurt but they and their teammates were obviously devastated.
Then they got over it and built competition ready robots that made the elims in one night.
Inspiring stuff.

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

Re: Most damage sustained
 

I would find that pretty amusing, especially If a ref was trying to get it down and it kept zipping back and forth

Re: Most damage sustained
 

The refs just let them go. They let our drive team handle them as soon as the all clear was given.

The minibots were eventually worn down after going up and down so much that they were driving really slow once the match ended (probably a burnt out motor). Some had even just stopped 1/3 of the way up the pole.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

I don't understand. Are you telling me tetrix motors burnout?!?!?

Re: Most damage sustained
 

This was not our bot but I hit 3604 last year and this happened...I felt bad but they brought it back for me to sign :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxN...ew?usp=sharing

-Ronnie

Re: Most damage sustained
 

if you stall them or over work them they fail. theyre prone to burnouts, its very common

Re: Most damage sustained
 

That as well as those gearboxes were weak. Our minibots didn't use them, but the FTC team I coach used them one year, and ended up breaking multiple tetrix gear boxes for their lift. The next year they improved the gear boxes and made them stronger.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

that is also true.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

I realize this. Tetrix motors ratings are terrible and an FTC team that uses solely tetrix will go through 10 or more motors in a season simply because of the lack of quality. Thank goodness andymark made the nevrest motors.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Tetrix aren't as bad as you think. The Loose Screws (FTC 5237) used tetrix and we didn't burn any in competition. The last one we burnt was when we tested our lift and we continued to power it even though it was at the top.

Even when we broke those gearboxes in ring it up, the motors were perfectly fine.

There are also four other FTC teams in Bedford, and I haven't heard of them burning out motors.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

We are referring to the older Tetrix motors, they are the ones that are very prone to burning up

Re: Most damage sustained
 

They were worse before ring it up? Wow, those must have sucked. I'm glad now that the motors and gearboxes are stronger.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Pictures of the destroyed robots I mentioned.
1592.
801.
This is what they look like after a night of tireless effort.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

At a scrimmage event in 2014 our robot had our radio ripped out by an alliance partner's claw/shooter :P

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Much worse. If they stalled at all you can just pitch it because it probably won't unstall, just lock up and burnout. They started making them differently, much better now, they're still known for breaking sometimes. It wasn't just the motor, it was the gearbox too, the gears inside would strip out and then jam if it stalled. These motors are from the kit that came in the Frc kit of parts ( correct me if I'm wrong, I wasn't on the team that year ) theyve since made them better.

We still have out Tetrix motors. We still have the whole kit actually. With the original motors

Re: Most damage sustained
 

You mean this?
Hyperion Falls
at 0:45.

My favorite fall down go boom, Team 1831, The Screaming Eagles:
1831 Falls
at 2:00.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

This whole thread is reminiscent of ESPN's "Jacked Up" segment back in the day...and I miss that. At least back then, some people were getting seriously injured. Here, it's just robots.

One of my memories was back in 2004 (on 45) at Great Lakes Regional. Our gripper fell off of our arm in (I believe) the quarterfinals.



I'm somewhere in there helping the kid on the shoulders of the other one stay up there. I'd love to see a team do this without getting called out by a safety adviser these days.

This thread has some details about what happened: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=26723

Also...who misses the alliance captain bibs?

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Back in 2013 when I was on 1523 we were at Championships in our final match, we decided to take the unprotected feeder station. Our robot was beat into the wall so much out entire robot was bent in a diagonal position. Was crazy to watch being the human player.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

I noticed that, I've seen a lot of bots tip over or just plain get stuck on a platform. It happened to us, but our alliance partner gave us a shove to get us unstuck. We used some really small omni wheels so we didn't quite have the ground clearance

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Our frame last year sustained damage, not because I accidently ran it into the wall at full speed multiple times because I got distracted watching our ball, but because we put so much power into our mecanums that the forces made our frame start to fail in a couple places

We put in 1/8" aluminum L-channel in and even that warped (in just practice where we were not running into things!)

In 2012, we had a similar problem as the one team that had their whole shooter tower fall off. Our welds broke and we couldn't shoot, but a couple of screws and braces fixed that.

Also in 2012, we were going onto the bridge and another team (I think the martians, but I cannot remember) was getting balls from under the bridge, and we accidently when under the bridge, pushing it down on their robot, and hitting their power switch. I felt really bad afterwards, but also got a good laugh out of it too! What are the chances?

Re: Most damage sustained
 

Well, Michigan at least still uses green bibs/jerseys.

Re: Most damage sustained
 

exactly... that was painful to watch