Al's Annual Inspection Thread

[magnets]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

So what I think Al and Jon are saying is that you should (and RI's will) assume the worst case that your robot will dry fire at some point unexpectedly regardless of your mechanisms designed to prevent that, because mechanism fail, especially when interactive with other bots.

If it only fires 'safely' with a ball loaded, then that is not good enough, and the robot is considered to be too unsafe for FRC standards, and it probably shouldn't be good enough for your team's standards due to the risk of serious injury.

Make sense?

No, not really. When my shooter dry fires, the lexan arms shatter in an enclosed area at the bottom of the robot. When we break the shooter, it's safer than if it took an actual shot. Standing near an arm smashing itself into the bottom of our robot is way safer than having a 2 lb ball be thrown at you from a foot in front of the robot, and getting the shooter arm to hit you on your head.