2012 Lessons Learned:The Negative

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Jin Hayashi

One of the unexpected problems our team ran into was the weight difference between the competition bridge and the practice bridge. Usually the lower cost field alternative provides the same experience as the competition field, but the bridge this year is one of the few exceptions that I have seen.

We were able to successfully lower our practice bridge and the bridge on a practice field built by another local team. However, we found the competition bridge was heavier. We were able to create a stronger bridge manipulator, but it wasn't until Friday during lunch of our regional competition that we were able to get it onto our robot.

Cheers

FIRST explained that the low cost bridge would not function properly without weight being added. They had a video showing that two batteries needed to be a certain distance from the edge for it to function as a competition bridge would.