Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalrik
The solution is, unfortunately, completely mechanical. The electrical and software rules and libraries expressly prohibit a disabled robot from taking any action.
What teams will have to do, one way or another, is design their collection systems such that when disabled they either release the ball or weaken their grip such that a hit from an alliance partner will dislodge it. Congratulations, you've found the difficult design challenge in this year's game. No, don't design your launchers to immediately fire if they lose power, as that's a clear violation of safety.
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Are you saying that it is illegal to have a robot with a pneumatic cylinder that, when working properly with bot powered on, gets air via a normally closed solenoid valve and extends, stretching some surgical tubing to move an element which keeps the ball from falling out of the robot.
Then when emergency stopped, the normally closed air valve closes, and a 2nd normally open valve opens to bleed air from the cylinder, allowing the the piston to retract by the surgical tubing tension, releasing the hold ball element and dropping the ball.
If this kind of ball eject scheme would be illegal by the current rules, then there should be an exception rule written to allow such a scheme, or to just have another fresh ball cycle be started from the pedestal, when robots carrying calls are disabled
-Dick Ledford