Pneumatic Systems

[AndyBare]

Anyone else see a pneumatic system as a very efficient way of powering the lifts for this game? Because you can add parts before the match starts, you can attach pressure tank bays to your robot outside of your frame perimeter. This would allow you to use close to no space inside you robot with air storage, and you could have so much storage space that it would be ridiculous.

[TheHolyHades1]

Yeah, it's definitely possible to have loads and loads of air storage. The issue with having the tanks outside of your frame perimeter is that in the event that you get bumped by other robots, you're possibly looking at 120 PSI plastic tanks getting hit by the metal chassis of a robot going 15+ ft/s (if you're moving, we could potentially have 30+ ft/s collision). So, I'd be seriously concerned about safety with that sort of setup. While it is quite unlikely that there will be anywhere near as many collisions this year as there were last year, it is still a thing to keep in mind, especially with pressurized systems.

Assuming that issue is solved, I do see quite a bit of potential for pneumatics. You can do the majority of lifting with your cylinders (say, raising between levels with different length cylinders), and then do fine adjustment by having the entire cylinder mounted on a lead screw or something, being able to adjust it a couple of inches as necessary to stack (to go over lips and such).

[Mike Marandola]

Originally Posted by TheHolyHades1

Yeah, it's definitely possible to have loads and loads of air storage. The issue with having the tanks outside of your frame perimeter is that in the event that you get bumped by other robots, you're possibly looking at 120 PSI plastic tanks getting hit by the metal chassis of a robot going 15+ ft/s (if you're moving, we could potentially have 30+ ft/s collision). So, I'd be seriously concerned about safety with that sort of setup. While it is quite unlikely that there will be anywhere near as many collisions this year as there were last year, it is still a thing to keep in mind, especially with pressurized systems.

Assuming that issue is solved, I do see quite a bit of potential for pneumatics. You can do the majority of lifting with your cylinders (say, raising between levels with different length cylinders), and then do fine adjustment by having the entire cylinder mounted on a lead screw or something, being able to adjust it a couple of inches as necessary to stack (to go over lips and such).

It's definitely a bad idea to have unprotected tanks outside the frame. I am not a physicist or engineer (yet), but I do watch Mythbusters. I remember them doing an experiment to see if two cars running into each other at 50 mph produces the same force as one car going into a wall at 100 mph. It turned out that the force between the two cars is still equal to the force of a 50 mph car going into a wall. So, theoretically, it will still be the same force as a 15 ft/s collision. Here's a clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8E5dUnLmh4