The Not So-Secret Secret End-Game

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by MarcD79

With all these posts I have yet to see anyone address HOW the Truss is mounted to the floor. There is nothing that I can see in the drawings that will prevent the truss from tipping over if a robot hits it squarely. If robots attempt to hang from it, there could be a swinging motion, which could tip it over.
FIRST would not put anyone's safety at risk by not providing adequate structural side-to-side support if they intended robots to hang from the truss later down the line. Yes there will be a lot of speculation & a lot of hopeful thinking, but maybe we need to look it square in the face & take it at face value. A truss to toss the ball over & remind teams of the height limit.
If on the other hand I have become narrow-minded, then I will eat my words.

The good news is that the robots themselves should not be hitting it squarely. The bottom of the truss is 5' 2" above the ground (rule 2.2.5), and the maximum robot height is 5' (R3). Although the field staff are occasionally lenient about a few extra inches on robots in the early rounds, we just have to make sure this isn't the case this year.

I believe that the bigger danger is the balls. A robot carrying a ball could very conceivably hit the truss (and likely will).

For now, I'm going to wait and see how week 0 events turn out. I trust that the GDC did a good amount of throwing balls at the truss to see how sturdy it was, but week 0 will be the real test. If it becomes a danger, I also trust that FIRST will add additional support during week 1 events.