Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

We were having a debate tonight on whether or not it is legal to fill pneumatic wheels with water. It would be a good way to add some weight to our robot (yes, I know :rolleyes:), but the catch is that it may violate R9. Do you all, especially current/former robot inspectors, believe "water wheels" to be legal?

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

No. Please Don't. It isn't worth the risk of soaking other robots or the field.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

One of the QA answers said Slime (or leak sealant) was not allowed so I would presume water is probably out as well.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

You may want to consider using radon gas to fill your pneumatic wheels, it's about 8x heavier than air. :rolleyes:

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

Maybe just try to fill the tires with a little bit of concrete. Seems like a good idea to me. (Note the sarcasm I do not endorse concrete in tires nor water).

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

Try tungsten hexafluoride. It's 11 times denser than air. Though please don't use it with water together. It'll release hydrofluoric acid which is bad.

Oh, and it's toxic and corrosive. That might be a minus.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

If you want to get real heavy I'd recommend pure lead wheels. They're about 12,000 times heavier than air.

Downsides: it's highly toxic and recognized as a carcinogen in CA.
Upsides: Basically everything else

#teamlead

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

It sounds like you might benefit from wheels made of quark-gluon plasma, which is over 30,000,000,000,000,000,000 times heavier than air. It would allow your robot to be an entire 1.5x10^-12 cubic centimeters big!

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

Disclaimer: If Radio is near wheels, might have comms issues.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

/thread

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

So? That's a small price to pay for the incredible benefits that come with having lead filled wheels.

In all seriousness though, probably not a great idea to fill your wheels with water. I can just imagine what would happen if you punctured a tire...

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

Why risk the heavy metal poisoning?

I recommend solid tungsten, it will be very easy to machine to fit inside the tire, and won't be melted by the flames of the 10th defense.

Back on track:

There are far better alternatives to add robot weight, rather than filling pneumatic wheels with water. Instead of "useless" ballast, add "useful" ballast, strengthen that arm with some steel, change Aluminium hex out with steel hex etc.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

What if you pulled the valve stems (the inside part, filled the tubes full of steel ball bearings, and then put the valve step cap back on. Would that work?

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

Just fill your wheels with depleted uranium - I mean, that's what they use in the back of 747s as ballast.

Re: Can we fill our wheels with water?
 

To actually answer your question- In Ultimate Ascent a team in my area came to an event with the wheels on their frisbee shooter filled with water. The inspectors did not allow them to use those wheels due to the risk of the wheels leaking or spectacularly breaking and throwing water everywhere.

While I am not an inspector, I would imagine that this would not be allowed again this year. The defenses cause enough trauma to robots that the risk of the wheels breaking open is too high.

Your best bet would be to ask a Q&A question for an official judgement.