Canburglar Safety

[Pretzel]

Originally Posted by Bennett548

As noted by Frank in his recent blog entry canburglars have the potential to be dangerous. We need to make sure to reduce or eliminate the danger of these devices.

We insert a steel pin into the linkage that drives our burglars when the robot is on the cart, and the pins are tied to the cart so they can't be forgotten before a match. We also unplug the motors when we know we won't be using them for a while, in case somebody forgets to put in the pins.

What is your team doing to make your canburglars safer?

Has anyone had an inspector bring up a canburglar safety issue yet?

Our canburglar is held, when not in use, by two 60 lb pull neodymium magnets on each arm, plus a mechanical lock that engages once the arms are fully retracted. The motor is physically incapable of pulling the arms just off the magnets, much less off the magnets and out of the locking mechanism. We feel that, since it takes two people to even pull the canburglar from its rest position (and it has already been tested through the rigors of slamming repeatedly into an alliance wall to dislodge a stuck tote), it's a near-impossibility for it to fall and injure someone out of the blue. The hooks also rest inside our frame perimeter, despite an optical illusion that makes them appear far outside it, so there are no similar concerns of people standing up into them.

The only concern is to keep phones, computers, and buttons away from the magnets! My driver button was attracted to them, pulling my shirt with it, from around five inches away and I was convinced I'd gotten myself hooked on something until I looked more closely.