Al's Annual Inspection Thread

[magnets]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Have you ever seen a fool-proof mechanism or sensor on a FIRST robot? I know I haven't... It would take quite a bit for a team to convince me that whatever system they have in place to prevent a dry fire isn't going to break at some point during the competition and allow the system to dry fire anyways. We've all seen some crazy stuff happen to a robot that no one expected...

I agree, there are no robots out there that are perfect.
You're saying that inspectors need to make sure that when the robot malfunctions, it's safe.

So, let's look at another malfunction. If my robot were to try to fire a ball as the intake was stowed, I'd break my intake. Does the inspector need to watch me break my robot that way too?

However, dry firing my shooter will break it, but pose no safety hazard.

This whole test is a bit stupid. It's kind of like asking teams to drop their robots from the top of the pyramid to make sure that when it falls, it isn't dangerous.