Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
Guys,
You are reading a little too much into this. The vent valve is to relieve system pressure so that the robot cannot move while in transport. There is no rule (except in my mind and those teams that design safely) that says the robot cannot move when energized. So many teams design just such a robot. When the pump comes on, things begin to move. Because the pits, the queue and transport areas are so crowded, we don't want a accident to occur simply because a system has pressure and a team member inadvertently enables the robot. I have had my arm caught in a moving mechanism and seen a robotic arm swing out and knock over the pit table into the pit behind it at Champs In addition to the safety, many rules are in place to reflect good engineering practice (similar to wire color codes) and to prevent teams with no pneumatic mentorship from hurting themselves.
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Al,
I value your opinion because you tend to relay facts in a cool and level headed manner. That being said, I have a question for you: What makes pneumatics different than a motorized mechanism? If air is locked inside a piston, after the relief valve is opened, it will stay in that position. What makes that different from an arm that cannot be back driven? Will it not stay in the position it was last in? What makes one "safe" and another "unsafe"?
I am not arguing with the rules. I'm just trying to understand the logic/rationale behind them.