[KenWittlief]

several people have plea'd 'build a robust bot' as the defense for leaving the rules alone the way they stand. Build a bot that can take it, and there is no reason for refs to DQ anyone

ok, time to inflict some physics on this thread. Its day after kickoff. I have to quantify 'robust' for my team. How good is good enough

what can we expect to happen if anything goes on the field?

given all the threads about multispeed transmissions at the beginning of the season, Ill take the worse case possible top speed, 15 mph

and the worse case robot weight, 130 pounds

for a bot to reach 15mph (22 ft/S) when dropped, it would have to fall from a height of 7.5625 feet - thats how much kinetic energy it will have when travelling 22ft/sec (all potential energy converted to kinetic energy) how much? 7.5625 * 130 = 983 foot-pounds


that doesnt sound so bad - so a bot come flying across the field at that speed and the corner of the frame hits my bot - I have to absorb all that energy -
if they catch us with the corner of their frame, the contact area might be 3 or 4 sq inches, about the size of the face of a 5 lb sledge hammer

so how far would you have to drop a 5 lb sledge hammer to give it 983 ft-lbs of kinetic energy? thats easy 983/5 = 196 feet

how fast will it be going? it comes out to 112 ft/second, or 76mph

hey, that wasnt so bad - all I have to do is design my bot so that someone can take a 5 lb sledge hammer and bash away at it for 2 minutes with an impact velocity of 76mph, hitting it anwhere, the wheels, the sides, the arms, the ball collectors, over and over

and if my bot fails then it just wasnt robust enough

in fact, we could have the inspectors do this to each bot in the pits, smack the bot for 2 minutes with a sledge hammer - if the bot breaks, it fails inspection

sounds like a good approach. Who needs rules of engagement? we can solve all our problems with thorough impact testing during inspection.

I have a sledge hammer in my garage. Anyone wanna take the robustness test with your bot?