Risk of the Lift?

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Pavan

With this years game there are two main ideas of how to get the robot up either four inches or twelve inches. They are by ramp or by lifting. For those that are lifting and for those that plan to either climb or be lifted, I believe that the lift is much more dangerous. Although with the ramp you have to to keep it in your base and with 2" of clearance due to bumpers you will need to have a small angle thus a longer ramp, it is much more safer. Your robot is always on solid ground. With the lift you are in the air. Are you sure 30 points is worth the risk of your robot falling twelve inches off of the ground? Although I hope this never happens, I think before teams start thinking of being lifted that they should all consider the possibilities both positive and negative. The main one is a robot falling, and today when my team was discussing this I thought of the fact that if you are being lifted up, you are no longer in control of your robot, and that if anything happens your robot will fall. What if it does? Will your team build a more robust robot that can take a twelve inch fall? Will your team prepare for a worst case scenario?

Before you answer keep in mind that six hard weeks of planning, designing, and building went are going to go into your creation.


Pavan.

Well they don't tell you to build the robots hardy for nothing.
In 2004 I saw robots drop from five feet and still manage to survive and function (after some repair work) one even went as far as the final four after it dropped from the bar. Unless you built your robot out of porcelin I don't think a one foot drop is all that big a deal.