pic: Surprise! Your crate was crushed by _____ .

[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?

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by 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?

You think something that did that to a robot would even blink at a bunch of packing peanuts?

Seriously, though. Packing peanuts are mostly intended to keep objects from violently shifting during transport. When you're trying to protect something from being crushed, you mostly put big "Do not crush" and "Fragile" stickers on it. And little pyramid things that get smashed and let you know that someone has put something on top of it. Or you build a box that can support 600 lbs on top of it and hope they don't try to put 800 lbs on top of it.

[Katie Reynolds]

Oh, man. This is why you insure your package through the shipping company. We insured our crate for $4000 (the cost of the robot plus the crate materials) just in case something like this happened - did you? =\

[d.courtney]

Originally Posted by Kevin Sevcik

You think something that did that to a robot would even blink at a bunch of packing peanuts?

Seriously, though. Packing peanuts are mostly intended to keep objects from violently shifting during transport. When you're trying to protect something from being crushed, you mostly put big "Do not crush" and "Fragile" stickers on it. And little pyramid things that get smashed and let you know that someone has put something on top of it. Or you build a box that can support 600 lbs on top of it and hope they don't try to put 800 lbs on top of it.

first off I was beeing sarcastic I know it wouldn't save the robot, but I am very interested in how much of a difference it would make... if you have a robot in a crate, and you fill the crate with packing peanuts, the peanuts will act like a pillow if something falls on it, it won't protect it i know, but I am interested in seeing what the difference it will make... and besides its more of a humorous thought I've had, one of uncrating and millions of packing peanuts flowing out of the crates and onto the floor... I guess I am just a big fan of packing peanuts (and I know they wouldn't save a robot)

[pacoliketaco]

OMG! i feel very sorry for you. what are you going to do with the shipping company? This was Fed-Ex right? because that would be the free shipping that FIRST supplies, so the FIRST community needs to do something about that.

Also, our crate might have been dropped, not our robot, but our supplies, because the wheels on our cart went straight through the bottom.

[KTorak]

I wish that the shipping companies would realize the how much work actually went into building these robots. I wish I could also run a test next year with our robot and add some sensors to monitor its up and down/side to side movement during shipping just to see how rough it really is.

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by KTorak

I wish that the shipping companies would realize the how much work actually went into building these robots. I wish I could also run a test next year with our robot and add some sensors to monitor its up and down/side to side movement during shipping just to see how rough it really is.

this would be a very interesting idea and great project for the acceleromiter and gyro, if unused on the bot. Problem being would be the power supply during shipping. But you could use the robot batteries and tie them together and have a thumbdrive as the storage drive. Maybe use something as small as a palm for the interface. Hmm, where'd my old pda go....

-Mike

[KenWittlief]

there are little devices you can buy that you put on the outside or inside of shipping containers

to see if it gets tipped, dropped.... and how much shock and vibration the container receives in transit