is string legal?

[Jeremy L]

i've been working on a part of our robot, a ball basket, for several weeks now and i have just come to the realization that string might not be legal. I checked on the FIRST flow chart of illegal parts and it seems to be OK, but some team members haven't been so sure about it. Can anybody enlighten me on the subject? It's being used to sew kevlar strips together and onto the robot. Thanks! Otherwise,

[David Kelly]

Originally Posted by Jeremy L

i've been working on a part of our robot, a ball basket, for several weeks now and i have just come to the realization that string might not be legal. I checked on the FIRST flow chart of illegal parts and it seems to be OK, but some team members haven't been so sure about it. Can anybody enlighten me on the subject? It's being used to sew kevlar strips together and onto the robot. Thanks! Otherwise,

We used string for our robot in 2002. It was legal then, so I assume it is legal now because they have lightened up on the materials we can use on our robots. Look at McMaster-Carr for string. I assume it will have it because they've got just about everything.

[raginwitdariz]

Currently we have string being used to release our basket, it made it through inspection at the New Jersey regional with no problem!

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Jeremy L

i've been working on a part of our robot, a ball basket, for several weeks now and i have just come to the realization that string might not be legal. I checked on the FIRST flow chart of illegal parts and it seems to be OK, but some team members haven't been so sure about it. Can anybody enlighten me on the subject? It's being used to sew kevlar strips together and onto the robot. Thanks! Otherwise,

From your description and application of the string it sounds legal. (unofficially speaking)
I have seen many string ball baskets that cause no problems with entanglement.

[Thadanator]

i think its legal untill people or (robots) , i mean the other way around, get cought in it, then u may have to re-do it wit something safer.

[Jay H 237]

According to section 5.3.2 and as long as the string doesn't violate rule <R11> it may be used. Basically as long as the string you use is available to any team and you account for it's cost. Also as long as it will not entangle anything it is legal.

[Petey]

No worries, mate. I think it was 1350 who had a ball corral made entirely out of string netting. Tons of teams had string used in their hanging device. I think there were probably 20 teams at Manchvegas who had some sort of string on their bot. No problems.

--Petey

[Aidan F. Browne]

Jeremy,

The only rule thing in Section 5 that indirectly addresses how the use of string might be illegal is:

<R11> Mechanisms or components that present an obvious risk of entanglement are not allowed.

So, if you do not violate that rule, or any other rule, and you meet the parts flowchart, then it sounds like you are fine.

Um... but... "i've been working on a part of our robot, a ball basket, for several weeks now"... hopefully that means conceptualizing and prototyping... the real part to be built at your next regional. Reminder:

Excerpt from <R09>:

• During the six week period following Kickoff: You may fabricate spare parts for replacement purposes of items on your robot as long as they are exact replacements for parts on the robot you shipped to the event. They must be brought to the event in a completely disassembled state as individual components (no bolt-on assemblies).

•

At Events: Teams are allowed to repair, modify or upgrade their competition robots while participating in a FRC event. They may do so only during the period starting with the opening of the Pit area on Thursday and ending at 4:00PM on Saturday. Work may be done on-site in the Pit or at any facility made available to all teams at the event, e.g., in a team’s repair trailer or a local team’s shop offered to all teams to use.

Good luck with your basket! (Kevlar? Guess we might have to say that its a bulletproof design?)



Aidan