[Retired Starman]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

Don't you have equal concerns for a student handling a locking device that is looped through a gate latch on an energized firing mechanism? If transport is a concern, then a teenagers hands on the device that releases that energy should be a greater concern.

I would think that any locking device should be on the arms of a catapult or on the object that is physically doing the throwing, not on the release device. Not one of my rifles has me touching the trigger to release the safety.

This presents a greater challenge to teams to design something that will work without fail while their robot is bagged. Very few robots that I have seen that didn't plan this into their design from the start will be able to add something that is 100% effective at this point without getting the robot out and we can all admit that the pits aren't the greatest place to engineer a solution to a safety issue. With that said, I hope all teams find a solution to this.

As said before, each robot must be evaluated individually to find a safe solution. The example is only that. I won't argue the point further.