Video: Robot Crashing Through Field

[OccamzRazor]

I am amazed that nobody was hit! That human player in yellow is part ninja.

And then everyone else starts the match like nothing happened at all.

[themagic8ball]

We're extremely happy that nobody was injured and that we can laugh at it now. As someone else noted, we were having issues with our FMS/new radios/driver stations that caused us to revert to using Practice Mode. The potential for injury is our biggest fear running an event like this and not having a full field stop makes that risk higher.

Later on in the day, there is a robot that completely destroys the low bar. Unfortunately we didn't get video of that. Our wood field has stood up to 15 years of abuse running 3 events a year, and after this event it is in by far the toughest shape I've seen it. Curious to see how the real field stands up to the abuse from all of the robots.

[lark95]

Originally Posted by cj3958

Speaking from experience here... Your worst fear should be breaking the robot, not this. If your robot runs into a wall for 15 seconds, it's no big deal. If you cripple your robot for 90 percent of a competition, that is a huge deal.

I have to agree here. We were extremely lucky that nothing broke.

[Wayne Doenges]

It was just trying to escape
Did the reset crew throw the bot back in?

[RNRice2]

For anyone with labview,
If you press space bar when the robot is enabled, you will trigger the emergency disable. If I recall the only way out of that afterwards is to reboot the robot.

Just a little tip if you get to practice with your bot.

[lark95]

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

It was just trying to escape
Did the reset crew throw the bot back in?

Yep. we just disabled auto and played a normal match.

[JesseK]

The robot was simply proving that with modern technology robots can, and are eager to, take over the world.

[dag0620]

Luckily real FRC fields likely would hold up to this, and if the robot did leave the arena for some reason, the team and field E-stops would stop it fast.

With that said, the GIF of this will never get old.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by themagic8ball

Later on in the day, there is a robot that completely destroys the low bar. Unfortunately we didn't get video of that. Our wood field has stood up to 15 years of abuse running 3 events a year, and after this event it is in by far the toughest shape I've seen it. Curious to see how the real field stands up to the abuse from all of the robots.

That is something that has seriously been concerning me. What if a robot causes a field element to be damaged beyond repair in the middle of a regional?

[LittleJoe]

Originally Posted by OccamzRazor

I am amazed that nobody was hit! That human player in yellow is part ninja.

Thanks for the compliment I was the Human player you're referring to

Originally Posted by IronicDeadBird

Atleast there wasn't a spybot.

I Think the spy bot would have been mostly out of the way.

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

That is something that has seriously been concerning me. What if a robot causes a field element to be damaged beyond repair in the middle of a regional?

I hope they bring extra defenses

Originally Posted by cj3958

Speaking from experience here... Your worst fear should be breaking the robot, not this. If your robot runs into a wall for 15 seconds, it's no big deal. If you cripple your robot for 90 percent of a competition, that is a huge deal.

The robot actually showed literally no signs of having hit anything after the match, the bumpers weren't even discolored. Thankfully our robot was thoughtful enough to use the door in its escape

We're very confident in the robustness of our custom drive-train and custom welded roll-cage.

There was actually a robot at the event that just ran into the castle wall every single match for auto.....

I think robustness is going to be a big issue for a lot of teams this year.

Originally Posted by Wayne Doenges

It was just trying to escape
Did the reset crew throw the bot back in?

I think you might just be right since the robot was making a bee-line for the hallway leading back to its friends in the pits.....

[scca229]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

That is something that has seriously been concerning me. What if a robot causes a field element to be damaged beyond repair in the middle of a regional?

Events will have 3 full sets of defenses. One set is for the practice field, and is designated as the spares for the competition field in the unlikely event that a defense is damaged past functioning.

[Sperkowsky]

Originally Posted by scca229

Events will have 3 full sets of defenses. One set is for the practice field, and is designated as the spares for the competition field in the unlikely event that a defense is damaged past functioning.

I would be careful using the word unlikely. Someone crashing full force into things like the cheval de frise could take it out.

[dag0620]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I would be careful using the word unlikely. Someone crashing full force into things like the cheval de frise could take it out.

The thing is, the official parts are designed to a higher quality than what we've seen in shops and Week 0 events. I think it will be unlikely.

Even if it happens, the spare and replacement practices FIRST uses should prevent problems.

Plus, don't forget FIRST engineering will have presences at some early events to monitor things. If precedent holds, they'll quickly work to address any problems that arise and roll them out to the fields on the road.

[techhelpbb]

Your robot has officially become Juggernaut from X-men.

[scca229]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

I would be careful using the word unlikely. Someone crashing full force into things like the cheval de frise could take it out.

After working with the official FIRST defenses....I'll stick with my term, unlikely. Dealing with them brought to mind the mentality of "belt and suspenders". They are heavy (Field Reset is going to earn their Volunteer Food this year) and extremely well built. My wife would probably bring out the term, over-engineered, which I would agree with but very much needed in an FRC field due to exactly what you brought up.

Unlikely also does not mean never. However, FIRST does not want to have to ship out replacements especially since they would have to be extreme rushed to get to the next stop for that field (read: EXPENSIVE) so it was in their best interest to make sure these things will perform at least as specified.