Quote:
Originally Posted by chrisrin
Frankly, from a safety standpoint, I'm surprised a 100% safe method for securing the rope at the top isn't being required. If a team uses a thin rope with a knot they presume is thick enough but isn't under certain scenarios (e.g. hanging robot actually bumped by another robot), then the hanging robot could fall to the ground with the current guidelines. A worse scenario would be the robot falling on a person because the top knot slipped through the 1" opening after the match when students are trying to extract their robot. There are many types of rope/cord out there with different characteristics. It would have been far safer IMO to include in the KoP a 100% reliable plastic anchor compatible with any (within reason) type of rope OR to require a loop at the top and usage of the fingers mentioned in the previous post.
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Stuff like this is going to fall on the RI to approve. Presumably the RI would notice that the knot is not sufficiently robust and would instruct the team to correct it. Given the safety issue I suspect this will become a point of emphasis. FIRST has already provided a safe method of securing the rope to the field, and it seems fairly robust and simple too. Most people should be able to knot a rope to a minimum of 1" width.
Personally I'm surprised that the GDC hasn't implemented a minimum width for this exact reason. Maximum 1", minimum 0.5", for example.