Dangers of High Speed Pneumatic Gun

[boomergeek]

So who thinks the FIRST safety inspectors will evaluate the Bimba guideline of 20 in/second and potentially disqualify robots because of it?

I've see a lot of videos and pictures of pistons tied to kicking legs during kicking motion and I have yet to see one that seemed like the piston was traveling less than 50" per second for a long distance kick. Getting 20:1 or 30:1 foot travel versus piston travel ratio is tricky especially in robots that are only 17" tall. (I think kicking hard over long distance is on the order of 40 ft/sec.)

Disconnecting the piston stroke from a kicking motion is feasible to keep the piston under the speed limit and it could be a valuable undertaking depending on whether this "20 in/second" is going to be perceived as a safety issue.

Personally, I think I am much more concerned about designs that are storing hundreds of pound-feet of energy in unrated/unqualified elastics as that would seem to be much more dangerous than speed violations on a pneumatic piston. But then again, I'm not an actuary.

I'm only a second year guy- any wise sages out there have any suggestions?