Examples of when it is not advantageous to be lightweight

[Travis Schuh]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

Part is maneuverability, though the main reason is I just can't think of a reason to be heavy. 1323's resources make machining for weight easy enough, and I think it would be a useful engineering goal for the kids to shoot for in season to design for a lightweight yet strong robot if the game allows for a lightweight robot as a viable strategy. Also it would be a good way to allocate weight lower into the drivetrain to make a lower CG (which has been a clear problem for us this year).

One of the first things many mentors I have learned from tend to tell me is how to lighten a robot and that "lighter is better" (not always true, but it's a point that has been stressed enough to me in my education that I started this thread because of it, though further learning could prove differently) and while I understand the potential advantages of a lower weight, I cannot think of many reasons for increased weight. More mass in a robot just makes it harder to move, and I don't see any advantages to that, and want to learn what I may be missing.

It sounds like your real design objective is to have a low CG. Low CG designs come from choosing the right robot architecture, rather than taking weight out of everything that is high.

I would caution against lightening for the sake of lightening. The risk of lightening done poorly is part failure, and it makes it really hard to win matches with a broken robot. Design time is often a bigger bottle neck than manufacturing time, and it takes a lot of time to properly lighten something so it will be at the edge of breaking but not break. We prioritize reliability and robot up-time very highly, and consequently we tend to overbuild things (for instance, our shooter could have stood to loose a few pounds, but it never broke and it was done on time).

Perhaps there is a better way to phrase the design goals, where lightening is one of the means of achieving them when appropriate.