Team 319 - Single Mechanism Collect and Throw

[dodar]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The discussion in this thread has me slightly worried, not about our design, but about the standard of "safe" varying between inspectors and between events. We've seen this in the past with things like chain guards or spinning wheel guards.

Is there a universal standard that can be set for the burden of proof that a mechanism is safe? Is it simply "make sure a positive action is needed to fire, and there is no chance of misfire" ? That's good enough for me.

What I would not want to happen is for a mechanism to be deemed illegal when an inspector's opinion is that it is not safe. That's not a good way to go about this. Thoughts?

Well when we had springs on our robot all we had to prove was that it was securely fashioned to the robot and that we had a steel wire running through it so that if it did unhook it wouldnt go flinging anywhere.

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

The discussion in this thread has me slightly worried, not about our design, but about the standard of "safe" varying between inspectors and between events. We've seen this in the past with things like chain guards or spinning wheel guards.

Is there a universal standard that can be set for the burden of proof that a mechanism is safe? Is it simply "make sure a positive action is needed to fire, and there is no chance of misfire" ? That's good enough for me.

What I would not want to happen is for a mechanism to be deemed illegal when an inspector's opinion is that it is not safe. That's not a good way to go about this. Thoughts?

Have you not run into this in any prior year? I've put extra shields on mechanisms to have an inspector call the robot safe multiple times. The worst is when a different inspector comes over to do the final check off and says, "That really wasn't necessary, why'd you waste an hour doing that?"

With our single mechanism collect and throw, we had lots of problems with throwing chain and having a closed loop control law to hold the arm up. I'd be curious to know how you're going about collection, especially since the ratchet will only let you go one way. Our control law had a "home" collect position, and the driver could control the position from there with joystick inputs.

[magnets]

We've passed at our regional with no problems, ever. Our robots were safe, and we weren't really questioned about safety stuff by our inspector. Then, while we were in St. Louis, the inspector failed to pass our ball kicker because he thought "the engineering behind it wasn't good" and that it would "fail after the first kick" due to "extremely poor design" and that our team could "seriously injure somebody with our ignorance". So, we waited, got inspected by somebody else, and passed. When we told the ref that the kicker had been used in >40 matches already, he refused to believe us.

We've seen teams get passed with a motor at least twice the diameter of a CIM, and we've seen teams fail because their battery is too close the the air tank (??).

tl;dr Inspectors are usually great, but sometimes, you can get screwed.

[Jon Stratis]

They key take away should be... pay attention to safety while building the robot! If I inspect two nearly identical robots, I'll be more likely to pass the one that has shielding and safety locks on their high-energy mechanisms than the one that doesn't.

With this particular game and the robot designs we've seen, I'll be looking for a couple of things from teams regarding safety. First, think about how things are when you pick up the robot. I want to see some protection so a spring or tubing doesn't break when your face is a half inch away. I want to see some assurance that the catapult/kicker/other launching device isn't going to spontaneously trigger and bash someone holding the robot over the head.

And please everyone remember... if you feel an inspector is being too rough on you, politely ask them for a second opinion from the LRI. I can guarantee you that the LRI's are only concerned about three things, listed in priority order: That everyone plays, that they do so safely, and that they do so in compliance with the rules. We try really hard to make sure that everyone passes inspection and has their robot in the best shape possible before they reach their first match. But we need your help to do so - both at the competition and now, during the build season!

[BornaE]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt9zSfinwFA