Quote:
Originally Posted by robochick1319
There are practice fields for you to fully test your drive. Placing safeguards (like blocks) for the robot to sit on while testing in the pits is an easy way to prevent avoidable and HIGH risk accidents. What can you not test with the robot on the blocks? Do the wheels run? Does the robot turn appropriately? Do encoders work? Can the arm lift? My teams tests all of these things with the robot lifted off the ground. There is inherit risk in this industrial sport, of course. But our tools have safeguards.
I don't get the counterargument against the very simple and effective safeguard of some wooden blocks. I especially don't understand it after I saw my own father run over by 120 lb robot and when I see small children like my 3 year old niece visiting the pit. There is no reason not put these safeguards in place.
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That's great your team can test everything on wood blocks but 1319 isn't every team out there and I mean that with the utmost respect. Your 15 safety awards mean something and its obviously a culture your team strives towards each season. Keep it up!
Like I said under the current practice field rules teams do not have access to practice space that is flexible and available for them to test these items that some find un-safe such as testing your robot in the pits. At the beginning of the day I have to send a student to the practice field to sign up for one or two 10 minute slots that fall between our match schedules. If we wait all the time slots will start filling up and I run the risk that I can't use my time because it falls under the window of when we'll be in the que line (which happened this weekend and we lost a slot each day). Occasionally we've been able to trade slots with other teams but they also have a schedule they are following. Even though I have those two slots I never know if and when something is going to break that will require us to put the robot on the floor and make sure it works and sometimes it involves making sure we can move even just a few inches but we try to do as much as we can on our cart.
We try to save big testing for those two slots we have each day however there are still items we found we need to test in our pit. Due to the unique nature of our intake this year we can't test picking up game pieces on our cart since its a roller bar that comes under the game pieces. Once I block the robot up the intake is now higher than it will be on the field and useless.
Again I would honestly be fine with a rule that says no testing in the pits IF a suitable alternative is put in place that greatly increases the availability and quantity of teams that can test their robots at a time but that does put more pressure on events to make the space available and have the space to begin with.
I've liked how the championship has turned the practice spaces into a first come first serve basis however for a 400 team event (and now 600) there still isn't enough access to them. At the championship having a much longer turn around time between matches means you can wait for 30 minutes in line to access those areas but at some regionals and districts you can have two matches in the span of 30 minutes. Personally I wish the championship added more areas with just carpeting also first come first serve basis in addition to what they have now.
The same can be said for tools in pits. If events start taking certain power tools away from teams due to safety concerns (while other events have different reasons) then steps need to be taken to make sure the event machine shop has more tools and is better staffed so it becomes a more viable option for teams instead of trying to attempt less safe alternatives for when your mini drill press gets taken away. I've had to wait over an hour to get some parts back at an event that would take less than five minutes in our pit.