forklift system trouble!

[AustinSchuh]

Originally Posted by Grim Tuesday

What trouble will we have in using gravity to get it back down?

First, what if down isn't down any more, and you need to retract your elevator to get it out of the way?

Also, you are limited to moving at less than the acceleration due to gravity on the way down. You can't go down any faster than that, and if you try to go too close, you risk having your belt or cable that is holding the elevator up fall off the pulleys.

If you bump around on the field, you risk your elevator bouncing up and the string coming off the pulleys.

If you forget to release the tube from your grabber and try to lower the arm, you risk the string coming off the pulleys. (And this will probably happen at least once.)

For us, that's too much of a risk and loss of performance for saving the simple cost of stringing the return cable. Preventing the string from being able to ever come off the pulleys or get tangled would help address some of these issues.