Air in tires adding to weight?

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Taylor

Why would you say this? Teams are encouraged to let all the air out of their pneumatic tanks when weighing, but can compete with them fully charged.

Is there a rule you can reference that verifies this claim?

The reason that they must compete with deflated tires has to do with the rule about robot configurations. The deflated and inflated states are 2 different configurations for the same robot, and the rule stipulates that both must be weighed at the same time.

[Conor Ryan]

Its well established on this insane thread that air is not going to make that much of a difference. However, I will offer up some tips from my experiences at competition on saving weight:

1. go check your weight out at the inspection station as early as possible. The scales used at competition are of much higher caliber than what the average team has back at their shop, they are also calibrated specifically for the competition.
2. Check your robot for bolts that aren't used, dust that has accumulated, random screwdrivers just sitting on it. You'll be surprised how many tools the field crew picks up over the course of 1 event. Most of that weighs more than air.
3. My favorite weight reducer this year is high density foam, you can get it in 1" sheets and its mostly air. And does a much lighter job where people tend to use Lexan/Polycarb type materials. You can also find it easily a lot of places (just look up)
4. After you do all of that, then try swaping out thinner pieces of metal/polycarb, you'll save more weight there than other places
5. Now you can proceed to the art of swiss cheesing.
   
   
   
   *results may vary

[Bob Steele]

#1 statement above is excellent... thinner lexan... 1/2 the thickness 1/2 the weight.

think about using rivets instead of screws and nuts... You would be surprised at how much weight you can save...

Of course you need to consider what strength you need and in areas where this is critical, rivets may not be a good choice as a direct replacement.

I would hazard a guess to say that EVERYTHING on your robot weights more than its own volume of air. If not it would float...in air.....

buoyant force...

of course this year is the first year we have to add weight to our robot .... low and to the front

[cj3958]

The inflation of the tires is similar to the electrons of an atom, they are important, but weigh nothing (sort of). It shouldn't be a problem and if it is I am sure you can have other ways of saving weight. Good luck though, hope you do well!

[45Auto]

If there is more than one scale and you're barely overweight, switch to the other scale and try weighing your robot. At the nationals in 2010, we were half a pound overweight on one scale and two-tenths underweight on the scale right next to it.

[FrankJ]

Have you tried dumping the code from the CRIO? The bits don't weigh a lot, but they add up.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Your Lead Robot Inspector will determine if you need to lose weight and how best to do it. Letting the air out of tires is not even on their list of 'try this'. I can tell you that many teams have tried this method while at the scale and there was no movement between before and after. However, one of the best ever over weight stories involved four full rolls of gaffers tape that the team had used to raise the wheels. The tape stuck to the bottom of the robot when they came for final weigh in making the robot several pounds over without an LRI foot on the scale.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

.... without an LRI foot on the scale.

I knew it! It's a conspiracy!

[nuggetsyl]

Just drill a few holes in your tires that should do the trick.