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Re: Team Update #18
The rules stated minibots need to exert 2-4 N of force to register. Teams should have designed their minibots to exert at a minimum 4 N force.
All this update is saying is if teams have not designed their minibot to this spec, they will not trigger the tower in week 3, and if they have, the minibot will trigger the tower.
Perhaps FIRST has figured out a way to make the towers accurately sensitive to 2-4 N force. If after week 3, your minibot registered half the time and didn't register the other half, AND you have physically measured the force with which it hits the top plate to be >4N, then there is a case to be made.
As for right now, they are just rectifying a lapse in the rules that has been bypassed (in good faith and fairness) by the referees in weeks 1 and 2 for what they thought to be a field error.
All we can do is play by the rules.
Last Note: I don't think the vertical force problem is as simple as some of you are making it out to be. Remember 2 years ago in lunacy, there were hundreds of posts about how "it won't matter how many wheels are touching the floor because frictional force is not area dependent." In fact, it certainly was area dependent because of surface roughness- a fact that many teams overlooked. I remember team 2753 (a rookie) realized they had better traction with more wheels despite the simple physics, and made it all the way to Einstein because they had better acceleration and speed than anyone else.
In the minibot case, there are motors which stop turning when the light switch is triggered, there is rolling friction, some other parts dragging on the pole, the light switches absorb some of the force in being depressed, etc. All of these things could add up to a difference maker. And no, I have not attempted to calculate it either, but that's why if you think something is fishy about the system, you need to physically measure the force out on the practice field.
A rare 2 cents from my short arms and deep pockets...
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Cold Fusion's 10th Season
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