[jvriezen]

Originally Posted by magnets

No, not really. When my shooter dry fires, the lexan arms shatter in an enclosed area at the bottom of the robot. When we break the shooter, it's safer than if it took an actual shot. Standing near an arm smashing itself into the bottom of our robot is way safer than having a 2 lb ball be thrown at you from a foot in front of the robot, and getting the shooter arm to hit you on your head.

Here's my thoughts and response, but I suspect Al will chime in as well...

There are some safety issues that can only be minimized to a point based on the game design requirements. Exposed spinning shooter wheels at output orifice (2012,2013), launched frisbees, etc. This year's game piece is harmful when launched at close range to a person also (though probably likely to cause less injury than from a frisbee.)

So the fact that live firing is unsafe has no bearing on issues associated with the safety of dry firing. The point is to maximize safety to the extent that it can be reasonably maximized. And the threshold FRC has chosen is that dry firing should not result in parts breaking off at high speed. If dry firing is shattering lexan parts, that may not be safe enough, since projectiles and parts flailing at high speed in directions they are not designed to go is the concern here.