2014 FRC's Biggest Loser

[BBray_T1296]

Originally Posted by Pault

Well, if you want to get technical, helium doesn't have negative mass, it is just less dense than air. A metric ton of helium is a metric ton of stuff, but it's still gonna float.

Compressing 1 metric ton (of mass) into a 112" circumference, 60" tall cylinder will NOT float.

At STP, 1000kg (mass) of Helium will occupy 5.6 million liters of space. Compressing that to ~980 liters (cylinder above) will increase the density from 0.1786 g/L (STP) ("lighter" than air) to over 1 kg per liter (much, much "heavier" than air [1.29g/L])

The most current price I can find on helium is $5.2 per 100 grams (if it is out of date, helium is only getting more expensive) You would have to drop 52 grand on helium, which is definitely illegal.

Also the pressure would be 15,000 PSI, definitely not legal, and unbelievably dangerous

[mman1506]

Weighed in at 66.7 pounds without subsystems. Should be about 80 pounds all in .

[Gilgamesh]

My team likes to wait until the competition to realize our robot is too heavy. Makes things more exciting!

[Master Mac]

And if we ever meet on the field I sure hope you are full of Gracious Professionalism, because this comment is not what first is about, and as a rookie team you will not go far with this type of comment. I wish if I was a robot inspector in your regional you never make it to the field if I had seen this post.

Originally Posted by piersklein

Rookie team here and we WAY over built (the team takes durability way too firmly). We are at 110lbs and do not shoot. We are using 3 by 1.5 in double extrusion for arms which weigh in at 50 lbs. And do not have much to save weight in. On the plus side, we can *accidentally* be a battering ram.

[BoilerMentor]

116 lbs as of yesterday with full functionality retained. After all our weight loss the robot came in at 114 lbs. We had to change one 550 back to a mini cim after it literally shot fire during driver testing. Minor things to add. We should be in good shape moving forward. We're very excited to attend the rookie event at Central Illinois and our home turf at Boilermaker. Good luck at the competitions. Reveal video to come.

[BoilerMentor]

Originally Posted by Master Mac

And if we ever meet on the field I sure hope you are full of Gracious Professionalism, because this comment is not what first is about, and as a rookie team you will not go far with this type of comment. I wish if I was a robot inspector in your regional you never make it to the field if I had seen this post.

You missed it a bit as well. FIRST volunteers are far to gracious and professional to preclude a team from competing because of a member's silly post on chief. There are however, possible card issuances for behavior within the arena this year, off of the field. Eventually he'll figure it out, don't you worry. They'll go up against another bigger, badder robot and find out that they aren't quite as tough as they thought. Defense is absolutely a part of the game this year. Everyone should be prepared to take some hits. With a totally open field the possibility of high speed collisions skyrockets. You need to build a robust robot, but they need to not intentionally damage potential alliance partners. Nuff said. Good luck at competition.