Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

our robot (from stack attack) used to have this huge arm and when it was all the way forward our robot would like tilt and wobble
so one day sumone leans on the controls while its holding a crate...and it whips around
it almost decapitated our whole team that was standing there....except sumone warned us and we all pulled a matrix (if yknow wat i mean)
we still talk about it

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Apart from me getting my finger caught once in the 2003 bots lifter (silly mistake, didn't do any damage) not much has happened luckily. Apart from running my foot over several timeS ( i wear toe tectors nowadays ;) ) not much has happened to us.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Man, i guess we need to pay more attention to safety, I can't believe this thread has gone to seven pages

The only Injuries 340 encountered was during auton programming with everyone watching at 2 AM, not exactly fast reflexes:)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

There was a close miss while building the bot. Our capes and the design on are shirts are bright green, so we figured out the hard way that our robot's autonomous was working when it started chasing us around. It was quite scary because our grabber is three huge spikes, and when the robot meets green, it shoots/lifts spikes up. It would have been very painful if it had caught us before our programmer frantically shut it off. (the autonomous functions that tried to kill us are controlled by Victor #3, which also likes to shock people working on the electronics: hence my avatar and signature.)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

ooh, I just remmebered one, not really an injury, but an amusing story.

We were testing out our camera stuff (which failed miserably in the end), but we did get it to follow green at one point, anyway, so I was working in the hallway because hte lighting was better, and i had someone about 30 feet down the hallway holding a green triangle. Well, I was apparently taking too long tweaking things, and he fell asleep, behind the triangle. Well, it tracked the green really well, ran right into the sleeping guy holding the triangle. He jumped like 8 feet into the air. Then he ran down the hall and had the robot chase him, it was amusing... and the only time our camera worked :(

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I am hearing a lot of almost loosing finger stories, but I am curious to know if anyone actually has lost one working on a FIRST competition.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I only know of one major injury this year...

While cutting down a piece of metal to mount our cameras, one of our mentors, Matt, accidentally slipped and almost cut his finger off. He got rushed to the hospital and had about 9 or 10 stitches put in...

that incident, although very serious, Is now joked about by everyone, especially matt. It also earned him the nickname nine-fingers...

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

This year at peachtree some repairs had been done to the robot and we were testing it in the pit (the arm) to make sure it was working again. I worked but in the process it smacked one of the ream members in the top of the head. There was a nice gash in his head, but he was one of our drivers and we were being qued. He drove the robot with blood dripping down his face. After the match it was bandaged up and he was fine.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

At the Denver Regional event, a limit switch was acting on the forklift arm on our bot, so we tried to fix it in the pit. Programming tried using a slightly modified program to fix it, and it ended up pulling the arm down way past its limit. The chain's turnbuckle snapped under the tension (stripped the threads clean off), and the chain whipped out a good 4-5 feet in front. Sent the turnbuckle screw flying a few pits over. Lucklily no one was in front of the bot when it snapped, so no one got hurt.

Those programmers will kill us all someday :)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I was the first and only (so far) to get hurt on my team. We were testing our ball gatherer, and I was trying to tighten a bolt. While I was doing this a fellow team member, who will remain nameless, was attaching a drill to make a roller spin. The fellow team member by accident pulled the trigger and the roller started with my hand inside. :ahh: My hand got stuck and was hit pretty hard(about 2000 rpm) with surgical tubing, that was added onto it for extra friction. I have a splint on my finger right now and most likely will have to get surgery after build season is done. :( At least I will never forget this year. :rolleyes:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Two of our prototypes have blood on them. Does that count?

(Band-aid injuries -- drywall screws are very sharp.)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Wow theres something we all need to watch out for :yikes:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last year.. I was sitting at a table behind the robot, making our auto mode.. I think you can figure out where this is going. Robot going full reverse at me. I also remember having to hold the robot back that year.. I probably ran the motors full speed at auto, and our power switch wasn't exactly in a good place.. couple inches from a drive wheel. So it was easier to hold the robot back and make someone else shut it off.

There was also that time our robot broke one of the encoders at a pre-ship competition.. so decided to disconnect the other one. This resulted in the robot going full speed across the field at the next match. No one got hurt there though.


This year.. well, we had just completed the drive train on our prototype, so I actually downloaded the drive code we use. One of the joysticks had been intentionally uncalibrated (With the default code, if you play with the calibration, it's a cheap way of making the motor run at a constant speed) I moved the PWM's around, and after the code got downloaded I had a robot going full speed towards a cabinet.

That was when I learned that the kitbot is pretty easy to hold back if you lift up the back wheels.

We made a very cool looking and easy to use disable switch this year.. Two of these .. Set up so that when the covers snap shut, everything gets disabled. :)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

2004... A life changing experience

First off, may I say that its never a good thing when you hear someone shout "hey, look what i can do". The robot with the arm up comes out of nowhere and hits me. That was okay, but what happened next wasn't. The robot's controls were sensitive and i am 99% sure this was an accident but the arm swung into my head. The arm hit me and knocked my face into the concrete wall. I was down for a few minutes and someone claimed that I was unconcious for a while. For those of you who know me, this explains my eccentric personality .... :p (Suffered from a few bruises on my face)

Next, we have the pneumatic arms and autonomous. The programmer decided to try something new with the code in the pits. He was at the opposite side of the pit area and I was on the other side of the robot changing the battery. He asked me if i was out of the way, and I said no. He obviously didn't hear me. Not only did the extrude aluminum pin my leg against the table, but the nets for the ball hopper were opening and closing without limit at a very fast speed into my face. I was hit in the face about 4 times before they realized what was going on. (Suffered from a lump on my head)

Finally, we have the "omg, what was that" situation. I was scouting, like a good freshman ;) when it happened. I was talking to a team at their pit station and all of a sudden I hear, "heads up!". I must say, wow! That was perhaps the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. The team extended their 12ft arm all the way up and their hook was double pronged and it looked very sharp(I will never what it looked like :p ). The bot was unsteady and so it tipped forward. The hooks missed my face by about 3 inches. Had that have hit me, I really don't know what would have happened. The robot came crashing down and just wow. A lot of people rushed over b/c they saw my face go completely white(people thought I was going in shock), about 20 people asked me if I was okay.

Its great and at times humorous to share experiences from previous year, but also realize that these stories can be valuable safety tips. I know that based on what happened to me in 2004, I changed a lot of my safety habits. 2005 was incident free. :)

GO SAFETY!!!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I'll let my team website's "under-construction" gif explain our latest injury ;)



:ahh: SCOTTY! ... :o duck

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last year when I was still on 1140, I was writing some code to "smooth out" the input from the joysticks so that I wouldn't see the death of the transmissions. I, the rookie that I was, assumed that PWM outputs center around 0...you programmers out there know what I'm talking about...anyhow, the code was running, I tapped Reset with a teammate working on the frame, and the 'bot plowed him over, leaving a huge bruise on his leg and pinning the bot under a desk, where there to this day is a huge gouge in the paint...oops.

I also was working a bug out at competition last year, where my code wasn't changing "states" during auton, and it turned out I was using an = instead of ==...I fixed it, but didn't have testing time, so the robot at the beginning of the match spun the turret until it smacked the plexiglass in front of the drivers with impressive force, drove out about 6 feet, and spun the turret about 5 times around in 2 seconds...ripped out the power to the compressor, the valve to open the pneumatic claw, and the team color lights. I was rejoicing because I found my bug, now I just had to work out the timing. The rest of the team didn't see it from my point of view... :yikes:

And then there's the time when we hit the head safety judge's hand with the end of the claw...I'll just leave it to your imagination. :-)

JBotAlan

P.S. YAY TESTING TIME!!!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Ive only had two so far....

1) well im a rookie and when i joined the team the first thing i did was watched our main welder weld (thats what he does) and, well i sort of grabbed a piece of scorching hot metal :eek: i had a burn for two weeks.

2) while things were kind of slow around the shop we were tosing a poof ball back and forth and i backed into the corner of a table, hard! i ripped my pants, underwear and i put a big ole scratch right in my butt. GREAT WAY TO MAKE A FIRST IMPRESSION TWORDS THE TEAM :rolleyes:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i don't know about the rest of the team, but I got a splinter when I was moving the board that had our processors on

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Well. One time we where in zerox and we where in the loading bay testing the amount of ft the robot could extend and put tetras on the goal. well are robot was havin some problems.Like the joy stixs where REALLY TOUCHY. so our programmer Mr. *no name*had stepd under the robot. I dont think he remberd that the robot was still on. one of our Rookies, had gently taped the left stick. Well the robot LEAPED 5ft at our programer. and hit him smack dab in the middle of his forehead. and since hes tall if he was short like most of you ;) he wouldnt of gotten hit.

Second. this happend to me. Ok, i was given a job to buff up some of are supports for the A frame. well hehe i did what i was told i buffed them allong with my fingers. Man those buffers i tell you have some strenght in them....My hand was really shiny! and red...

Theres many more so ill just limit it to two (*_*)

~Doug,Commander of war storys.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i slit my thumb with a sheet of steel and it bled forever...earlier that day it was the senior blood drive and i fortunately didn't give blood because if i did then i would have prolly passed out from all the blood that i lost..it was very bad cut that is still currently healing

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i was cut zip ties off our prototype and i cut my firnger with a razor blad. then with our prototype cannon i got shot in the nuts :eek:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Nothing worth mentioning other than a guy who drilled into his finger to the bone....then there's always fiberglass that burrows into the skin

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

No "Major" injures to anyone

Fair share of booboos

As for me, I've stubbed/bruised/smashed all fingers and toes, cut no less than five fingers, gotten 1 minor cold(heat went out in shop),
heat my head, had my nose clipped multiple times, shins hit with wings in 2003, fiberglass, metal shavings and then the Norwalk outbreak of VCU in 2004.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Hmmm... where to start? Well, two years ago one student was cutting a 2x4 and somehow he got sawdust past his goggles. This one isn't robot related to a robot, but one girl ate shrimp on our trip to the chesapeak regional and she broke out in hives and had to go to the hospital, apparently she didn't know she was allergic. Last year one kid repeatedly, like 20 times in 5 minutes, picked up angle iron just after cutting it on a chop saw. He didn't get hurt but it was kind of funny because he would forget every two seconds that metal gets hot when you cut it. Also, one girl cut into her finger with a drill. Finally, I think someone got hit with part of the robot last year. Wow, that's alot for just being in FIRST for 2 years. :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

My FIRST lesson of FIRST: Don't try to clean the flutes of an endmill, while holding onto the flutes. 2004 was a bloody year.



Endmills are sharp.:ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

The lesson I learned was to never put a popped chain back on with the robot and operater interface on. It will leave you with a nice chain shaped scar on your hand.:)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

So far in 1293's history, one idiot has managed to claim both the first and second place slots on the list of our worst injuries: me.

Luckily, it wasn't so bad. The year was 2004. The night before ship, and two students decided to test out Bob. We didn't have a dongle back then (when I say that we were rookies, I really mean it), so the robot began its long drive to the ball tee in a room full of then-new computers on very rickety tables. I set down my work and run to the robot to try to trip the main breaker, since a tripped main breaker means the robot stops. Only then it started to make its turn, meaning Bob's arm was moving to where my leg was. I tip and fall, hurting my wrist a bit and being thoroughly embarrassed.

The other incident wasn't as bad. It was Palmetto 2005, and we're in the practice area with Ockham. Our driver didn't set the dongle to disable, but tipped back the control board to pick it up. This throws Ockham into a nice little reverse--right where I was standing. Didn't do any damage to speak of, since the frame rode up onto my shoes and I held it off long enough for our driver to get it stopped.

Moral of the stories?
*If you mentor a rookie team, make sure they have a dongle. (It really costs all of $20 to do, less if you don't want fancy switches.)
*Make sure your team wears closed-toe shoes and safety glasses. If it takes you wearing a pink tutu and being the Safety Glasses Fairy, so be it.
*Know what the robot's going to do.
*Disable the robot when you're doing anything with the controls but using them.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I never imagined that you might need to wear a cup for robotics. Of course, it turns out that you do.

The interesting thing is, we weren't even using the robot. Just "practicing" by throwing the foam balls at each other.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

A student on our team lost, I believe, from the 1st knuckle down (counting from the palm) of one of his fingers at a competition 4 or 5 years ago. We had a drive system with a chain on it and while it was being repaired in the pits, for whatever reason, his hand was in the bot when the robot was turned on. It was very frightening for everyone on the team and was a lesson to us all about staying clear of the robot while it is in the pits.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

my first year on the team, We were at Chatsworth(a practice comp.) and i was holding the robot on its side. We were testing the air compressor and the ball herders on that system. Then the ball herders kind of attached me.lol
No lasting damage, just some bruises.lol

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Am I the only one who thinks it really isn't the brightest idea to post how you injured yourselves at robotics, for all the world to see?

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

The only one I can think of currently is the time person, now a team member at competition put a zip tie around his hand. Guess how he got it off. If you guessed tried to cut it off using his palm as the surface with his knife and had to be rushed to the ER on competition, you were correct.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

If you do then hopefully others won't make the same mistake.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last year our robot broke my heart.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

One time it was a progamming; :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i cut myself on a chair while reading this thread
I'm serious. the chair has a sharp point, and i cut myself on it while reading this

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last year, i believe i vagely remember what happened, but one of our great mechanical student (he graduated) cut his finger deeply on a machine. i might be wrong but he cut himself badly on sumthin last year. Theres alot of finger injuries

-Court-

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

A member got his fingers stuck in between the chain and sprocket. Ouch..


We had this close call:
The CMU Cam was aimed to red and one of our members was wearing a Red Citroën jacket and when we said follow the red it chased him down our hall way. He took a sharp turn on a corner and the robot took a sharp turn perfectly (looked like a movie stunt) and then the guy threw off this jacket. Lucky him. The robot was a bull and could have seriously injured him.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Courtney is right, he was using a sander and is finger got to close. It ended up sanding off is finger nail I think.

There were also a lot of injuries to people's heads from our fingers. I know that there were a few times I had my had in the robot and would go to lift my head and I would hit one of the fingers. It didn't feel good at all. I know that there were a few people that did that. Last year one of the girls and I were doing some electrical stuff and we both got burned. She got burned from a hot glue gun and I burnt my arm on the heat gun.
There were only a few injuries.

Tiffany

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

We've never had anything serious, just a few minor cuts from those sharp edges. As for something funny...one of our engineers was standing next to a mill and we went to go use the jog function intead of cranking it back 20 something inches...and the engineer was hit right below the belt in an very uncomfortable spot with a handle spinning at 100in/min...Set it back to Zero! is still an inside joke to many team members.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

one of our builders cut off a 1/3 strip of his thumb while handling the drill press with a special drill bit with blades on it, he didn't clamp the pvc pipe we were drilling and the drill press pulled the pipe into the bit with his hand holding on to it. Had to go to the hospital and when we found the strip of flesh on the ground later (we didn't realize it was completely cut off until then) we called the hospital and they told us it was too late and couldn't attach it back. This was this year and just like a week ago. He's still recovering :-/ It was a pretty serious injury. He's getting better though.

Other than that, a few minor injuries, ppl burning their hands touching hot fresh-cut metals, splinters from wood, etc.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Here's a cool invention that saves your fingers when you're working with wood, now we just need to make it work for metal.

http://www.sawstop.com/

I wonder if it would be possible to build this technology into a robot so if it came into contact with someone the main power would be shut off. The mechanism is a variation of touch-lamp technology and as long as the robot has rubber wheels or treads it seems like it should work.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

last year i became confused during driving practice and ramed the robot into one of the engineers. He wasnt very happy about that......

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Ever since we got the competition box with the disable switch i hve been a nazi about having it on whenever people are around or when i go to check somthing. It is truely a great feature.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Was debugging autonomous positioning on the test robot, set to maintain a position. I over-dialed a potentiometer I was using for tweaking. Robot shot backwards, slammed me up against a work bench and pinned me, out of reach of the OI, my girlfriend hit the kill switch and knocked the dongle off, making it useless, then I managed to kick the tether out.

Life lesson, even if it's not programmed to move, stay clear!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Safety tip: Our cart is narrower than our drivetrain on purpose. The wheels hang in space so we can test code without the 'bot moving. All changes happen on the cart first, then on the ground. It just takes a second to lift it onto the cart.

Team members still hit their heads on the tetra arm of Wooden Thunder, though. Even with the breaker for the pneumatics pulled and the PWM cables removed from arm motor outputs, it's still going after skulls -- when people bending over to work on the electronics stand up without thinking. We're using Woodie as the testbed for our new code, but we still don't want to remove the arm. Once Top Gun is up and running, Woodie gets to be the sparring partner.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

There was the time last year at anapolis when the robot almost fell out of the arena, almost hitting one of the judges....

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Most injuries can be avoided by better planning and not trying to work faster while doing it carelessly.

• Several years ago a rookie team went to nationals without a working robot. My team, 175 at the time, and other teams worked together to get them a working robot. Their mentor was working carelessly to get them a working faster. He ended up cutting a pretty big gash in one of his fingers while using a saw. He ended up needing stitches.
• Last year at the championship a member of my team was fairly seriously injured. He was standing next to the robot in the pits and we had placed the robot on an unsteady support structure of our robot cart and the kit boxes. The robot fell and the corner of the frame tore through his leg. It went through so deep you could see bone. Nedless to say blood was everywhere and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. I think he needed about 20 stitches to close the wound, This year we're designing a better cart.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Yeah, a few years back, one of our team members was using the drill press and had just changed the bit. I've only heard about this one, but anyways, she left the chuck key in the drill press and our chuck key is chained to the back of the drill press. She turned on the machine and a few of her fingers were all black and mangled for a few weeks. she' sstill on the team, and has had no further injuries.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Well we had a few...Last year we were working on the arm and theese two fools were playng around one of our veterans who was doing something with this thread I believe, well in a nutshell one kid pushed the other and hit the arm or something and than the veteran nearly lost his finger. >.< Wow theres alot of finger related injuries during building season...

Hmm so descriptive... :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

This is why, usually, the chuck key has a springloaded end so that it is impossible to leave it in the chuck without pressing it in with your hand. That way, injuries of this type are avoided. Sometimes these injuries can be really serious. I have heard of people leaving the chuck key in a lathe, and when they turned it on, the key was shot out as if it were a bullet (people have been killed this way).

Personally, I have never been seriously injured while working on the robot (except for minor scrapes and cuts), although yesterday I got a blood blister on my middle finger when I accidentally pinched it in our bearing press (ouch!).

Once though, one of the members of our team (I believe this was 2002) drilled through his hand while trying to build one of the rolling goals for Zone Zeal. Another kid also scratched his cornea (I forget how) in 2002 during the Championships in Orlando. Nothing very serious has ever happened since this though.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Another injury we had that wasn't related to anything of the arms was when we had this milling machine and we were cutting this peice. Someone didn't close the door correctly of the case of the CNC Milling machine and we had some sawdust in there, and well long story short this guy got some sawdust in his eyes. Its not really an injury but he had some problem trying to get the dust out of his eyes. :/

Sometimes after an injury has occured you can look back and laugh at it, especially if the victom makes fun of it :P

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

We had a close call not too long ago. A metal cutting 10" sawblade on a mitre saw had damaged teeth. The fellow using it didn't notice, and had another tooth break off and fly into his safety goggles, right in line with one eye. It put a rather significant crater in the lens, but didn't penetrate. ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Didn't Ken Stafford say his teacher demo'ed it by leaving the chuck key in and then placing a wooden board between him and the machine? something about the key almost ripping through the wood...

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I've cut up my arms and hands a bit while working on the robot before, but as far as I know nothing major's happened.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

We Have Three count em' three first aid kits just in case and just in case happens a lot ;) ;) :rolleyes:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Yesterday was a very... unique day.

After I read this thread a dodgeball game erupted in the workshop (I know you're thinking this won't end well). So after not playing the game in 7 years, I eagerly joined in. Once I had my fill, I ran into the wood closet for shelter. However, the walls don't reach the ceiling, and the guys threw balls over the wall.

One of them hit a metal T-Square and the edge landed right in the back of my neck. So now I'll have a disfiguring scar across my back forever...YAY!

And remember, this all happened RIGHT AFTER I read this thread...

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

our driver was cut on her face by our robots arm and our human player, during a round in atlanta I believe, had a robot fall and hit her while she was standing in her human player box.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I saw a robot fall over on someone's head in 2005 at Portland. I've read about other incidents on CD. I STILL cannot imagine why FIRST didn't require hard hats last year. It's a miracle that no one was badly hurt.

Can't see much use for hard hats in this year's game, though. And that's a good thing...

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i have been giving only a moderate amount of blood to our robot this year.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

i had one today where i had a stupid moment and got out of the chair and walked right into the robot, which wasn't even powered on and scratched my leg

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Not any serious injuries on our team, hopefully it stays that way. As far as minor injuries, i got hit on the side of the head w/ a poof ball we launched out of the robot, i almost got nailed in the balls by a poof ball, and then right after that i got hit right in the face with a poof ball, it didnt feel to great

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

our teacher didn't demo it to us but he did say that he lost a co-worker that way, permanently I mean...

probably the most lethal machine in our workshop (unless of course you play tag with the drills :ahh: )

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

well last week our team had one of our first injuries... i was making a hole larger on one of the copper battery terminals and silly me rushed through and forgot to clamp it down and sliced up my thumb pretty good when the copper caught the bit. but luckly it didnt affect my abilities too bad

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I can't believe I haven't posted this yet!
One of our mentors was cutting down a connector for our base, and the metal got stuck in the gear. It took off a big chunk of teeth, and put a few nice indents into our connector. But worst of all, there was a big chunk taken out of our mentors finger. 17 stitches worth.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Man, some of these injuries make my injuries like accidently sanding my finger on the belt sander and cutting my thumb w/ a screw driver look like nothing

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

:yikes: One team member cut himself on wirecutters. Funny scene, now there is a joke going around.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last week I was pulling a piece of 80/20 out of a socket that it was stuck in. Well I gave a good heave and the bar popped right out. Smacked me right in the eye (I was wearing safety glasses though). What scares me was it cracked the glasses and left a little cut on my eyelid, if I hadn't been wearing glasses I probably would have done some serious eye damage.

The lesson: It doesn't matter what you are doing, if you are near the robot you need glasses.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Ok, yesterday, for the the first time our robot was moving around, and I realized that if you stop really fast, robots will fall down on you! :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Nothing happened on our team some band-aids could'nt handle. :D A couple of kids cut their hands on metal shavings from drill bits, and I nicked myself with the hand deburrer.(While using it left-handed. :rolleyes: ) The worst injury came when one of our mentors went skiing with his daughter and came back with his hand covered in band-aids. I think he got his hand caught in the lift or something. :)

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I'm sure it hurt Chuck, but it wasn't that bad... at least you weren't gushing blood. Nothing a few band-aids couldn't fix.

Though a few members on our team thought that they red wire was the drill press covered in your blood. It took a little bit before we realized that it was just the wire wrapped around the bit.

The good news is that the battery terminal and wire still works, and I believe its been put onto the robot. I think that was the more important issue in this whole ordeal... right Chuck?

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

yea there was this one happened on like 3rd week of build. So we were testing our ball gatherer, and Katie was trying to tighten a bolt. While she was doing this a fellow team member Aaron, was attaching a drill to make a roller spin. The fellow team member Aaron by accident pulled the trigger and the roller started with Katie's hand inside. Her hand got stuck and was hit pretty hard(about 2000 rpm) with surgical tubing, (which was there for added friction). Katie now has a splint on her finger right now and most likely will have to get surgery after build season is done. At least Katie and Aaron will never forget this year. Note to self when ppl come near u with a drill ask them if it is in neutral.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

On the 5th week of build one of our members (a very entertaining character by nature) accidentally drilled through his finger. He said "I am not going to look down because I think I drilled a hole through my finger, and it is probably bleeding". Other than that, it has been a good year.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

this isn't a injury but it was pretty funny. last year our robot decided to spin out of control in circles with the arm fully extened and a tetra on the finger. it didn't hit any1 but it scared a jude so bad that he jump out of his chair n ran away. a couple seconds later the bot fell over n the wheels kept tryin to spin. throughout all this the robot kept the tetra on the finger. :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

lmao! just the way you phrased that made it 10 times funnier :D

:]

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

luckily, i have yet to suffer any major robotics injuries, the worst so far being shallowly slicing my finger while using a double-bladed exacto knife. though last year, one of our mech guys got dragged around the room by the robot when one of the kids turned on the controller w/o realizing it would actually control the robot :rolleyes:


:]

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I'm not sure anyone was injured per sé, but we did a test during build season in which we had to see how much our driving base could pull/push. So, we had a couple brave members get on the ground, flat on their stomachs, and have the robot pull them the length of the hall. Good times.

My personal injury could possibly be considered robot-related, as I had to unsolder a few things from a board to use with the robot. These were also secured with hot glue, which had to be removed to get to the solder.

Burnt myself 4 times with hot solder and I think I lost a ton of brain cells from inhaling melting glue.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Yesterday our team was testing out our shooter. We loaded the ball which went up, hit the ceiling, hit the shooter, and then hit our mentor in the face! >_< We have video! It's pretty funny....

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

our CNC operator has scars all over his hand from cutting it on the drill bit. Our funniest injury, though was last year, when three of us were trying to shorten a bolt to use on a table for our pit. We used a hacksaw, and failed to realize it would get very hot. I think each of us tried to pick it up three or four times, burning our hands each time. The running joke now is "Ug! Bolt hot!" The worst part is that we took the second bolt to one of our Senior manufacturing guys, who shortened it with ease and lack of burning with the belt grinder.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

This year, there was an accident with a student and a lathe. She was working on the lathe, and while she was tightening the chuck, she forgot to take the chuck key out, and she also forgot to take her hand off the chuck key, before she turned the lathe on. she split her finger open almost all the way across, she lost her nail, and she broke the bone. she immedietly went to the hospital.

it is almost healed and she can help here and there now.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last year, there was a senior team member who tried to convince a rookie that the big red button on the controller was a self destruct switch. Of course, he pushed it and the robot went into its dead reckoning autonomous across our shop and into the desk I was working behind, pushing it along with me into the wall. There was no lasting effects, but it sure was interesting.

Last year, again in the off season, our team was moving our equipment into storage in a semi trailer, so our tool chest needed to be disassembled. While putting it back together, I slid the loaded hammer drawer onto its runner and as I prepared to do the same on the other side, the clip gave and the drawer fell, leaving a gash around my thumb leaving the ligaments visible and partially severing a nerve. It took 5 stitches to get it back together.

And on a completely unrelated note, I have been working this whole build season with a broken wrist.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Well as many of you know by now Team 1322 has had a very serious accident. Our top mentor lost 2 fingers building our battery plug in case. Every team has by now read about us and Team 663. Our condolences, thoughts and prayers are with 663. Accidents happen but when somebody is hurt, maimed or even worse it is not a funny matter. Safety should always be the fore front of everybodys mind. We always preach it to our kids but do us adults always take the same precautions when the kids aren't around. We now have a sign on our door that reads " Do you remember the Alamo, maybe not but always remember the Joe". I would never ever want another team or family to go through what we have since Saturday night.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

our big injury this year was actually a member of a different team that we helped start. they figured they could throw a robot together in a few days and it was easy well 3 weeks into it they came to our lab with a unopened kit of parts needless to say we built them a rolling box and were going to help them with a harvister this weekend. so im going a mile a minut trying to get a kit bot frame put together for them and i hand 1 of there 4 students a piece to cut and a hack saw well needless to say he almost took his thumb off then after lunch i find him randomly cutting on the band saw but its all ok because he wsa wearing his safty glasses lol

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Okay well I'm a little late on things...what happened to team 663?

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

This last Sunday I was using out compound miter saw to cut some aluminum and my finger got sucked into the saw blade. Lucky I didn't loose then end of my finger. Here is a like to a pic after the doctors in the ER stitched it back together.

WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT!!!

But here it is 4 days later and the finger is feeling better and I am back working on the robot like nothing ever happened.

Kirk

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

The jist of the injuries were to our robot. This year we were out on our field in front of the school, testing on how fast our balls were shooting. Just as we pulled the triger the sprinklers turned on. To make it a little worse, our robot was exactly over the sprinkler head wasking our electronics.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

This thread is HUGE!

Back my Senior year (2003) for Stack Attack, on one of our MANY late nights in the Ag shop programming auto I swore the robot had it in for John while he was keeping the Programming cord from bring run over. I made one little change in the code that made the robot want to run him down... but the disable button saved him :-D.

To further that, ALL teams should have a disable button created and post someone at that button at all times during testing. It ought to be a MUST in your testing phase. Don't just use a switch, get one of those two position mushroom head stop buttons that you push in and pull out... and have them near it like they are getting ready to hear the million Jeopardy question. It could save a trip to the hospital.

Also, every team member that is going to use dangerous equipment should be properly trained by a mentor, weather or not they have used the machine prior to the current build season. People forget, or get careless... a refresher every now and then can't hurt. Train them, show them, Watch them. Be safe, don't rush, and get it done with all fingers and toes in tact.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

I am sorry to say that Team 663 lost 1 of there mentors due to carbon monoxide poisoning in his garage. I was asked to write an email on safety that went out to every coach, attached to my email was a statement saying that he had passed away on 2/10/06. Please keep his family and Team family in your thoughts and prayers

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Last week our team (845) had a mentor that cut his thumb half an inch deep using a band saw....it was pretty nasty

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Luckily we havent had anything too bad happen on our team but most recently we had a senior burn himself on the robot we had just had the frame welded in a few places and while carrying it back it was still very very hot and his wrist rubbed up against it, think it was a 2nd degree burn.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Thanks for the publicity man!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Well, I forgot to set the robot on some books before putting some autonomous codes in, and it took off towards me pretty quickly, but I was lucky enough to get out of the way with only a bruised hip from hitting the corner of a table. The robot itself has been getting pretty banged up lately though, with all the running into walls and lockers :p

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

one guy got knocked down and I got my foot ran over but other than that fairly uneventful.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

2004 was our rookie year and our senior programmer was also our robot driver. We wernt at the competition 5 min. when he stabbed an X-acto knife through his palm. Keep in mind he was a programmer (typing) and our driver (operating joysticks). His face went pale and his eyes glazed as his cupped hand filled with blood. All we could get out of him was, " Close my laptop, close my laptop". just like a progammer.

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

It was not really an injurie but while trying to turn off our robot a team mate got hit in the face with a ball from our launcher going full speed :ahh:

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

Today, I was drilling holes in this peice of lexan because our robot was overweight. So we were using a 1/2'' drill bit I believe and I was holding the peice down because it was a very large peice of lexan and we couldn't clamp it, anyways something happend and we went down too fast and it kind of twisted up and cut me in 3 different spots on my hand. One was very deep, and hurt like a mother but no big deal. Looks real cool too!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

No major injuries so far in team 706. I seem to have cut myself lightly on something today, and yesterday... The biggest injury we had was not robot related at all... one of the frosh on the team decided it was a good idea to throw an aluminum rod. A shout, bleeding face, etc. The guy who was hit didn't come back this year. :(

Just one question... WHY DONT YOU PEOPLE PUT YOUR ROBOTS UP ON BLOCKS?!?!

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

as of now..no...at competiton during all of the chaos, maybe

Re: were there robot related injuries on your team?
 

oh wow does 1923 have some good injury stories.

january 7th: meeting at school after kickoff. we're opening the boxes...i hear...AHHHH!! turns out my friend "missed" the ziptie she was cutting...made a nice lil' slit down her finger with an exacto knife.

and then us just being dumb, and...for example, drilling the side of the lexan that was hanging over the EDGE of the table...

filing UPWARDS towards the face...

and, of course, playing with surgical tubing...

and, at NJ Regionals, a piece of lexan broke off in big sharp chunks...

we used them as awards...only i kept cutting myself on my MOST TEAM SPIRIT award.

oops. =/