[Jon Stratis]

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.

And if that's the case, I would fully expect you could explain it to the inspector (and possibly go through a low-energy/slow motion demo to show where the stress will occur without actually breaking your arm) and get agreement that dry firing is safe without requiring full test. I'm not saying we'll require every robot to dry fire... It's a judgement call on safety when a dry fire does happen. If I think the results of a dry fire will be bad (like launching the head of a 30lb sledge hammer into the crowd), then I'm going to arrange for a safe dry fire to see how the system holds up, even if there's a sensor the team swears won't let it dry fire. If a dry fire will result in a situation that's safe for those in the stands and next to the field, then I won't have a need to ask for a dry fire test.