I was just thinking about this last night, and we should at least encase the entire pack in a sheet of some thick polycarbonate, or some other method of keeping everything inside the pack in the event of any catastrophic failure. We should also replace the tanks with their metal equivalents.
I did mention that this pack is unfinished, and still requires some more safety features. We just needed something built to use for practice, and plastic tanks are what we had on hand.
If this is ever used, it is easily depressurizable for wearer movement to help reduce any accidents. This is only intended for use in safety glass areas around the robot when the robot is running and only when it is needed.
Having a member of our team walking around an event with a pressurized pneumatic backpack is just plain idiotic, and is not our intent with this system.
We don't intend to keep it pressurized for any extended length of time; only when we need to repressurize the robot for practice or testing.
Perhaps a tankless backpack may be the best option for safety, so pressurized air does not get stored in the pack at all.
If we deem this pack too unsafe still, we will make sure to keep it out of an event. Thank you all for your concern. I'm also all about safety, and I want to do my best to help make this pack safer for my team members and every volunteer, student, mentor, and attendee at an event, if that's possible.
