Wood vs. Steel Barrier

[thefro526]

I just went back through the field drawings to look at how the steel barrier is made, and a 4x6 steel tube might be an accurate and relatively easy to find substitute for some teams. I believe we have some 4"x6" or at least 4"x4" tube sitting on the Material Rack at my job, I will try to get some dimensions of the corner radii to compare.

[mdiradoorian]

That is true that team test there prototypes onto he wooden barriers and are successful but I can bet that some of those team will have a problem at their district/regional competitions. That is why I am telling my team don't rely on the success of the wooden barrier.

[pfreivald]

We covered our barrier with aluminum flashing to simulate the coefficient of friction and rounded edge in an affordable manner -- it made no difference to our drive train...

But yeah, a lesson I had to learn a half-dozen times in FIRST and am now paranoid about is this: never engineer anything so that it barely works. All values are nominal, and assume that if they're off, they'll be off in a manner disadvantageous to your robot.