[moderated] You write <G34> and <G35>

[KenWittlief]

Then you're twisting everyone's words into saying that robustness means withstanding a sledge hammer. That's ridiculous. We've already said there are rules against that type of behavior. It's called battlebots, and FIRST has come nowhere near that.

its been stated in this thread that its ok for a bot to drive across the field at full speed and ram another machine, and if the machine breaks it was too flimsy

if I made a mistake in my potential/kinetic energy equations please point them out, but thats what it equates to - driving a 130 lb bot into another at 15mph is the SAME AS hitting it with a 5 lb sledge hammer going 76mph

the same amount of kinetic energy is present in both

if it seems absurd to you that a bot should have to be designed to withstand that type of punishment, ANYWHERE on its exposed surface or mechanism, then you get the point now

it IS absurd to say that all 1000 FIRST teams can design machines to take that kind of abuse

and yes we have rules - but they were NOT imposed on any team at any event that anyone can remember so far - so if a rule was never involked is it really a rule?