Slack in the Overpass

[JesseK]

Watching the webcasts of NJ & MidWest, there was noticable flex in the overpass when a bot would hit it. There was a ~2" 'bounce' at one point in the elims just from a launcher bot shooting the ball at it from underneath and hitting it.

This is a huge issue for us as we planned on setting our autonomous for a specific height -- if the overpass is too low we'll probably have the most hilarious high-speed flip-over in FIRST history -- 15ft/sec in hybrid . With the fatigue from the flexing, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw an overpass crack towards the end of the season -- hopefully the mounts for the overpass are replaced in between regionals.

[mtaman02]

Trust me robots hit that overpass all week b/c they forgot to lower themselves before going under. That overpass is not going anywhere unless the regional assembles it wrong. Shockingly enough I didn't see really any extra spare pieces of the field like I did last year. I saw one piece of spare driver station plexi but that was it. I guess FIRST also feels confident the field won't break.

[Wayne C.]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

Wayne,

Were you measuring to the top of the overpass or the bottom? The specs clearly state the height of 78" is to the top of the overpass. With the pipe at approximately 1.25", the bottom should measure nominal 76.75". With the +/- 1" that would make the range 75.75" to 77.75".

Paul

Paul- you are right- the 78" would be to the top but the bottom spec says approx. 76.5. A 75" robot should have cleared. Not to dwell on this- we will and did adapt.

Next time we'll just have the robot leap the overpass and knock the balls off on the way......