Accident?

[Betty_Krocker]

My team has been (like most other teams) throwing around the idea of a teloscoping arm similar to the robot Sparky for anyone that attened the VCU regional last year. The main problem i see with this, is although the idea worked last year, the rings only weighed a fraction of this years ball. BUT lets say this situation occurs:

You are in the process of hurdling, (your most vaunerable postion) with your arm fully extended, and comming around the turn a bot either slams into you by accident and tips you over, or forces you into the overpass, breaking the arm AND tipping you over.

I know a penalty will be awarded to the bot at fault, but at this point the damage is already done, you are tipped over, and have a broken arm that isnt easily fixed...

this was more of a rant than a question, but does anybody see the "flaw" in my thinking or can anyone add to it?

[kevin.li.rit]

Well your telescoping arm could be built to lift heavier loads... And durable enough to survive impact or at least built to make fixing/replacing it easy.

[Akash Rastogi]

Also, your strategy and how you keep the ball balanced/ curled into your robot plays a vital role in the possible tipping/breaking of your bot.

My advice...just don't have the arm extended around turns. Only extend when you are ready to knock down/place the ball. Other than that, this problem really isn't trivial.

[Zyik]

I predict seeing a lot of robots forced into the overpass. Your going to have robots going at high speeds around a track, robots are going to bump into each other accidentally. You'll have conversations after a match along the lines of, "The arm isn't supposed to bend that way..." just like last year.

Everyone's just going to have to keep this in mind when they design their arm/lift etc. In this game I would really not recommend a fragile arm.

[Betty_Krocker]

Originally Posted by XxMORTteam11xX

Also, your strategy and how you keep the ball balanced/ curled into your robot plays a vital role in the possible tipping/breaking of your bot.

My advice...just don't have the arm extended around turns. Only extend when you are ready to knock down/place the ball. Other than that, this problem really isn't trivial.

no i meant another bot comming around as you are going to hurdle and running INTO you..

i have proposed a simple "throw the ball over" scheme where air would be used to simply chuck the ball over the overpass, hoping it doesnt hit an alliance bot on the other side... if it hits anything else, "we" (the department i designed with) didnt care, as long as we didnt break in the process

[Protronie]

You mentioned a penalty to the robot that "accidently" hit your arm or caused you to tip over... IMO no penalty should be placed on a robot that "accidently"
causes you to loose control of your robot.

If your arm design is THAT fragile... maybe you should rethink using it in this game. If you still go with that design... beef it up!

Accidents will happen, thats racing.

[Speeder]

Maybe hurtling shouldn't be allowed in the area of hurdling.

[Cascade]

I do see a flaw. Build a better robot by avoiding a bad design, in this case tipping and damage to the arm. I suspect there will be some sever accidents at the location you identify rather by accident or on purpose.
A robust design will be essential due to the speed of the robots. One clue to this is bumpers are mandatory this year. FIRST must be expecting some high speed contact to occur.

[1086VEX]

an elevator would be a good option... team 1086 was meeting with sparky and we duck taped the ball to their elevator and the minibike motor that we used for the lift could raise the ball but it bent the lift some...you would have to build it very robust..

[Justin M.]

Well, the thing with FIRST is that you need to build your robot to expect the unexpected. You basically laid down the deal for robot design in your own post - if you bot gets slammed, and the arm breaks, then the penalties are assessed but you still have a broken arm. Build an arm that doesn't break. Your bot needs to be able to take a serious beating this year, because with 5 other bots flying around at full speed you can expect at least a few crashes.

[Betty_Krocker]

Originally Posted by Protronie

You mentioned a penalty to the robot that "accidently" hit your arm or caused you to tip over... IMO no penalty should be placed on a robot that "accidently"
causes you to loose control of your robot.

If your arm design is THAT fragile... maybe you should rethink using it in this game. If you still go with that design... beef it up!

Accidents will happen, thats racing.

when i ran the phyics simulation for it, i set it up so that neither part could break (the arm or the bot) and with only half the speed that i am expecting people to achieve this year, the bot flipped over....

alos i dont want people to think that i am still pushing for the arm, that is not the best option, at least for my team i feel. i am fairly knowledgable in the area of pneumatics and have proved that we can put a ball down the field (and over the overpass) in less than half the time it would take for someone to place it over...

[Ziaholic]

something else that hasn't been mentioned yet ...

Bring a SPARE! Even the beefiest of designs may still have a design flaw, or a weak spot ... if you want to avoid being just a lap bot on day2 ... have a spare handy and swap it out in the pits.

I'm not saying to spare everything ... but if it's critical and/or vulnerable, it'd be a good idea to bring a spare.

... and your scenario isn't the only way things may/will break ... don't forget the 10-pound balls flying around in addition to the speedy lap-bots ... one stray bounce, or a tip-over onto an arena guard rail will surely bend or break somebody's fragile part.