Starting from the bottom, the rope goes through a steel U-channel, which it's held in by 2 pins. Then it makes a 90 degree turn, runs across the top of a square steel tube, and through 2 steel tabs welded on the sides of the tube. There's a pin through the top of these tabs to hold the rope in, the knot rests on the far side of the two steel tabs.
Failure options for winches will too much torque that don't stop at the top.
- Knot slips/rolls completely off the bitter end of the rope. Rope slips through tabs and channel.
- Knot tightens or compresses enough to slip through tabs. Rope slips through tabs and channel.
- Rope breaks. Robot falls, only custom rope is damaged. I suspect this will be disturbingly common with teams using mostly velcro for a rope. I expect field crew to have a trophy wall of 4" long ropes, since they'll likely break at the 90 degree bend.
- Knot wedges between tabs and bends them outwards. Depending on size, knot may get stuck in channel.
- Steel channel buckles under load. I'm not bothering to calculate this, but it seems like it's less than the following.
- One or more tabs shear their welds.
After playing with the touchpad, I think it's unlikely to get damaged. First, there's the channel sticking down that your winch will run into. Please design your climber to jam against this channel before the touchpad. Second, the plate is 1/4" lexan, the bolts it hangs from are relatively well pivoted, and I'm nearly certain you can shove it against the steel plate it hangs from with no ill effect. The most likely failure mode would be shearing the screws that hold it to the channel on the davit, I think.