Why is weight so important?

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by CraigHickman

For me, I design all moving parts to be as light as possible, and all fixed parts to try and hit the sweet spot between strength and weight. Lighter moving parts = less force required to get them moving = faster acceleration. Speed = win.

I fully concur! If anyone ever calculated their final power consumption under load (sans pushing and shoving), they'd probably find that 5 lbs of weight can easily translate into several extra watts of available instantaneous power. We all know what more power does: a more responsive drive train, faster manipulator movement, and more room for error when you're lifting a game piece.

For those of us who do offseason design, mainly drive trains are what you see. If we can shave 20% of the weight from a 35-45 drive train concept, we inherently add watts of power to be used in acceleration of the drive train. Another benefit of extra power is that drivers can simultaneously move more things at once, such as the drive train, and say 2 degrees of freedom on your manipulator.