Quote:
Originally Posted by bduddy
Um, no, they didn't. Jim, who may be on the GDC but is not the rulebook, stated that they are illegal because they damage the floor. I honestly don't see where he's coming from-perhaps skirts too low might scratch the floor, or something. But if you don't damage the floor, there is nothing illegal about those systems.
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Pulling a 1 PSI vacuum over a 20"x20" section will produce 400LBS of force pulling on all surfaces (Ideal gas laws). As such, while your robot may see a 400 LB gain in nominal downward force, you will also create a 400LB nominal upward force on the flooring which is only 0.090" thick plastic. This, most likely, will cause the floor to bow or even break.
We, too, were considering pulling a vacuum below the robot to increase our traction. We decided to wait on this strategy until we knew whether or not the floor could take such abuse ... apparently it cannot
