What could go wrong?

[mathking]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Contact inside the frame perimeter can be a serious problem when you're trying to acquire a ball and your opponent is playing defense on you.

Good observation. This is going to be a real problem for some teams. I also think that many teams are going to struggle with their own shooter damaging the robot. I see a lot of catapults causing repeated stress damage to the robots on which they are deployed.

[Caleb Sykes]

There will be at least one team that does not understand the 20" extension rules and unintentionally breaks them for their catching mechanism. For example, a 28"x28" robot will try to extend into a 68"x68"square by extending out ~28" from each of the 4 corners. Read G24! It shows rounded corners for the legal extension area.

[KevinG]

This year's kit frame seems ideal for protecting the electronics and other fragile components. You can take advantage of that lip along the bottom of the frame to mount a piece of polycarbonate and use that to hold your electronics and even the battery. Now all of your important stuff is recessed and should be protected.

I think the biggest thing people won't be prepared for is the opponent's ball. If an alliance launches their ball over the truss, and it lands on top of your robot and gets stuck... that's a technical foul. Possibly two if you can't dislodge it. This is particularly important for any team that intends to catch the ball.

Our team is thinking that "catching" the ball is going to be something other teams aren't designing for, and we're designing our robot to accommodate that. This actually lends itself to the previous issue, because if our robot can catch our own ball then it could just as easily catch the opposing alliance's.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by mathking

Good observation. This is going to be a real problem for some teams. I also think that many teams are going to struggle with their own shooter damaging the robot. I see a lot of catapults causing repeated stress damage to the robots on which they are deployed.

What we have deemed the "perfect shot" for our robot requires a whole heaping helping of stored energy. We're looking to design accordingly--stress damage on our own machine is something we very much hope to avoid!