pic: Surprise! Your crate was crushed by _____ .

[sanddrag]

What in the world happened!?!? That is insane! Details please!

[Dan Petrovic]

Who can honestly sleep after being a part of something like this?

The shipping companies are being paid big bucks to safely transport expensive machines that students spend hundreds of hours building, and this is how they treat the crates?

[travis48elite]

THAT IS A TEAM'S WORST NIGHTMARE! That would leave me speechless and at the same time crying!

[spears312]

First I saw a pic of a robot who's crate fell apart (and survived) now a pic of a robot nearly obliterated by something crushing it. That looks pretty bad but I suppose it got fixed. Did they mention exactly what caused that damage?

[Jay H 237]

Was the crate actually crushed from the outside or was the damage done by other stuff shipped within the crate? I ask because the visible walls of the crate appear intact and still square in the pic.

Do you have any pics of the overall crate?

[Kevin Sevcik]

Secondhand info here until the Toltechs get back. From what I heard, it seemed like something large and heavy dropped through the top of the crate. And then someone removed whatever it was and replaced the crate top with a new piece of plywood.

[KenWittlief]

ok, so I guess its time for FIRST to either

A. host a crate design contest. Points awarded on cost, amount of weight the crate can support on its top before it collapses, how far it can be dropped before it breaks open, and simplicity of construction. Winning design becomes the standard FIRST robot crate

or

2. supply a baseline crate design like they do for the low cost field design

?

[JaneYoung]

I think those are a couple of swell ideas, Ken.

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

ok, so I guess its time for FIRST to either

A. host a crate design contest. Points awarded on cost, amount of weight the crate can support on its top before it collapses, how far it can be dropped before it breaks open, and simplicity of construction. Winning design becomes the standard FIRST robot crate

or

2. supply a baseline crate design like they do for the low cost field design

?

[Ellery]

Yeah Crate design that is robust and light is a challenge. Our crates have been pretty robust for years but the budget reductions have brought us to a point were every once counts. We've been looking for some type of lightweight crate that can support another 600# crate stacked on top of it. Right now our robot crate is 277# empty so just adding the robot with the controllwe already makes us over the 400 # limit.

I'll have to think of something this summer.

Ellery

[KenWittlief]

Next year, along with all the other robot requirements, they can add:

R073: The robot must be 56" tall when bolted into its crate, and able to support 600 lbs through its frame with up to 2gs of vertical acceleration, for up to 300 hours.

(problem solved!)

[Kyle Love]

Did anyone else see the crated with the hole in the side of it in Atlanta? It was by the exit of the field by the parts table. It had a huge hole in the side of it.

[JulieB]

What was so freaky was it happen on the same aisle as our crate being demanded.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=47125

[KenWittlief]

Originally Posted by JulieB

What was so freaky was it happen on the same aisle as our crate being demanded.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=47125

Sooooooo... now we know what got dropped onto the other crate! (your crate!)

[Barry Bonzack]

My props to your team to immediately start figuring out ways to fix the problem instead of going on a rampage of a blame fist. Fix robot first, point finger later (if at all needed). A lesser group of people would give up at a sight like this. What a great show of character of your team and the teams that helped you!

[d.courtney]

heres an idea to save a robot in the future ... packing peanuts.... I can see it now, getting to a competition and as every team uncrates thousands of small packing peanuts fill the pits floor... ok maybe the idea is a bit flawed, but humurous non the less... so other then the clean up (which would be rather fun what do you think? (I suggested it to my team while packing this year, but they wouldn't hear it)... and now for the real question... what amount of damage could be saved from packing peanuts?