[DougHogg]

1) One of our students was using a table saw to cut off a strip of UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight) plastic that we use as a bearing for our arm. (The arm rotates in a hole in the plastic which is very slippery stuff.) Apparently the plastic got hot and stuck to the blade, and somehow it pulled his finger over to the blade. He had a lot of stitches in that finger. The plastic is great stuff, but be careful if you are ever cutting it. A stick with a notch to hold down and push the plastic (push stick) would have prevented the accident.

2) Our telescoping arm this year has two motors. One raises the arm and the other rotates it.



One day during testing, the arm came up but didn't rotate. The engineer who designed the arm, came forward to see what the problem was. At that point, the arm suddenly swung and hit him right between the eyes on the bridge of his nose. He was hurting for several days. Apparently there was a loose wire which became "un-loose". (After this event, there were some ideas of changing the robot's name from "Yoda" to something like "Franky", short for "Frankenstein II".)