[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Swampdude

To re-iterate my point of having a 250lb + cg that's as much as 4-6' away from the SIDE of the tower. If you have a 130lb bot 4' tall but in horizontal position (Meaning your base has over 120 lbs in it and its suspended 4' from the side of the tower) Then another bot hooks on to your base adding another 130lbs and also shifting the cg even further from the tower (then possibly even a 3rd bot hooks on), I can almost guarantee the tower will fall over and it could bend the pipe depending on design and how the bots climb on (bouncy etc.) I doubt the tower structure weighs more than 50lbs and only has an 18" plate sticking out? But 250-370lbs of bots hanging 4+ feet away will topple it. I'll be surprised if they don't nix the idea. Maybe I'm wrong.. we'll see...

This is the specific scenario I'm worried about. You could in theory have one SUSPENDED robot (call it a Blue Alliance robot), outside of the tower, say on the midfield side. Then another blue robot hanging off of it (toward the red side), than yet anotherblue robot hanging off of it, toward the red side. At potentially 465 lbs, this is getting to be a somewhat large cantilevered load, imposing a fairly large moment on the tower structure. Perhaps the ball return would keep the tower from toppling? Is it tied in? And remember, it's not just the weight of these robots. There is extra force required to accelerate them to these positions, and overcome stuck conditions that may occur.