[Tristan Lall]

Tape measures were a common accessory in 2002 (to expand the robot size to occupy a zone while scoring in another). They were typically powered by an external drive wheel off of a drill motor and transmission (roughly equivalent to the current RS-775 motors), or by direct drive (sacrificing the retraction mechanism by driving the hub directly).

However, kink-resistance wasn't typically a huge deal (except when teams decided to try to get entangled and draw a penalty by driving back and forth on an opponent's tape measure), so teams simply relied upon the inherent stiffness of the tape measure.

You might want to investigate whether it works better with the numbers facing up, or down. Also consider having quickly installable spares, because if it is damaged during one match, odds are it will kink at the site of the damage (if anywhere) during subsequent matches.