pre-charged Pneumatics

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Originally Posted by eagle33199

Which leads to a question for Al... If a team had such a safety lock that was removed from their robot after placing it on the field, could they use it during the sizing part of inspection, but remove it when weighing the robot? If the safety lock is a few pounds for something real sturdy, it could make a real difference when being weighed.

Eagle,
The answer would be yes and no. A safety lock could be used but under the rules for start orientation, the robot (not humans) has to be able to remove the lock after the match starts. The robot must be able to hold itself in the same size it did when in the sizing box at the start of the match.

During previous games where mechanisms used considerable stored energy, the team had to demonstrate during inspection, that the stored energy could be released (safely and easily) prior to moving the robot on or off the field. One of the most impressive devices I have seen was on the Baxter robot during Overdrive. It used surgical tubing and a cam type charging device. To move the robot, a team member just needed to back the cam to the point where the tubing was no longer stretched. Those that played against Team 16 that year knows the effectiveness of that ball launcher.