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Re: Near-death experiences or injuries during build season?
In 2008, we left our battery holder to a little too late in the design, resulting in a setup that required holding the robot in midair (humans or sawhorses), sliding underneath it, and awkwardly wrenching the 13.5lb battery down on your head. The robot never actually fell, but the sickening sound of a sawhorse slipping beside my head still haunts me on occasion.
[EDIT]How it won't happen again: We're smarter now. Our battery cases are actually rather elegant these days, and if we ever have to get under the robot, we both support it and have people hold the supports/robot. Mostly though, we design better access points and maybe turn it sideways.[/EDIT]
In 2009, that darn Lunatic managed to go crazy on us once. E-Stop/disable failed (I didn't even know this was possible), so I got the lovely task of sprinting up to a haywire robot and sticking my hand inside for the Main Breaker before it ran over someone more important than me.
[EDIT]No one knows how or why this happened. I'm endeavoring to make our switches easier to reach, but I honestly have no clue what this was.[/EDIT]
Other than that, the worst I've done is be the idiot rookie that decides to hold an aluminum plate in a drill press while drilling a 1/4" hole. C-clamps, people, C-clamps!
[EDIT]We now have tons of clamps and are religious about using and teaching students to use them.[/EDIT]
I also got beaned in the head (one too many times, or some my friends tell me) by our very heavy, very unwieldy 2007 arm. Hurt like heck every competition and made me bleed once or twice, but nothing crazy. I figured it was payback for being the not-so-gentle arm driver.
[EDIT]We're definitely safer in the pits, but it also helps that we're more intelligent about arm design. I believe the issue in 2007 was a faulty drive (it would fall down randomly on the field as well). We haven't made this mistake since, but if anyone is ever under something, someone else is holding that something. Our "somethings" are also lighter nowadays, for many reasons.[/EDIT]
[EDIT]Also, I'm posting here, so hopefully someone will see this thread and remember to be safe in their own situations.[/EDIT]
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Last edited by Siri : 09-02-2012 at 12:18.
Reason: how it won't happen again
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