[dpc131]

This is a good post, as I assume each of the issues stated will be encountered during the season. As a robot with a shooting mechanism, we have been extra careful to look at all states of the robot and ensure that we have mitigated any risk of inadvertent firing. We are implementing safety interlocks (pinning the rig) to prevent firing as well as a "loaded" sign and lastly training of the crew. The one thing that we identified is that the most risk is when the robot is switching states i.e. in process of loading, since it is doing it without user interaction. We've implemented a pneumatic safeguard that slowly vents the pneumatic at the end of the match to transition the robot back to a safe state in this case.

The other thing that I see this year is that physical interaction with the robot is not allowed. I think the GDC realized the risk of the interaction of students with the robot and eliminated it. I would expect that since there have been numerous posts of past injuries this will continue to be the case in years to come.