Quote:
Originally Posted by Fields
I agree that driving should not happening in the pit. In the other thread someone had talked about testing their actuator and grabbing a tote. In order to get accurate feedback, both items had to be on the same level which worked out to be the floor.
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Okay but let's consider some issues specific to this year:
A robot outside of transport configuration is probably larger.
The totes are relatively large.
I watched several people put their robot on the floor and test actuators and I am fine with that.
However a large robot, not really designed with crumple zones or padding moving in a room full of tightly packed people?
If you watch the Mount Olive District event I always loaded the Blue Alliance field first. That queue was slow to move. In walking by one of the robots on the field I got shirt caught by a piece of aluminum projecting only because the robot was in a perfectly reasonable configuration for the field.
So realistically speaking, even if the robot is not driving, putting the robot fully expanded on the floor in the pits moving requires a fair deal of consideration to keep people out of the work envelope and the potential drop away of the tote.
I wouldn't object as long as it was clear the area in the work envelope was actively patrolled.
This could be easily addressed by the venue offering a floor level area for testing in addition to the practice field.
For example at Mount Olive High School we certainly have a lot of floor we could offer for temporary use.
If you walked back by our machine shop table there was a large section of the lobby back there empty.