Structural Integrity of Competition Defenses?

[MarcD79]

In Waterbury we started seeing problems with the pegboard s-hooks that we were told to use, due to the tight clearance of the drilled holes for the pins designated for that purpose, aka they wouldn't push in. We saw it mostly on the Rock wall, then more on the other defenses after they were switched into a spot vacated by the Rock wall. Those robots that didn't adjust their designs to accommodate the rock wall height were the ones that slammed up & over. Most others with Pneumatic tires flowed over. There was a lot of force generated to cause the damages. Except for the mounting design, I thought the defenses were built fairly well. By Sunday morning we had destroyed all the s-hooks & switched back to the pins, which now fit (loosely) into the holes. Now the rock wall started jumping up. We finally gaff-taped across the front/back of the defense to the floor mount & that worked. This is not a solution, just a band-aid.
The low goal curtain was damaged many time & we taped them back together. We got more curtains made up from the school sewing class with a slightly smoother material & they lasted longer.
I have a few suggestions to correct the problems with defenses lifting up, but there is not enough down time or personnel in between weekends to fix them. Obviously this is occurring throughout competitions & I hope they come up with a solution