Gas Shock Legality?

[Daniel_LaFleur]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Short answer, as far as I can tell the answer is yes. Unless you can find a rule that explicitly forbids them they are legal. I believe they would fall under the same category as springs. (In cases where I need force and not velocity I prefer gas shocks for safety reasons) This is my interpretation and I would really appreciate if someone with more FRC experience (preferably on the inspector side of things) would confirm this interpretation.



I happen to agree with you based on my reading of the 2010 rules but have to argue with how you came to this decision. Past years rules have no bearing this year.

<R01> Energy used by FRC ROBOTS, (i.e., stored at the start of a MATCH), shall come only from the following sources:
A. Electrical energy derived from the onboard 12V battery (see Rule <R40> for specifications and further details).
B. Compressed air stored in the pneumatic system, stored at a maximum pressure of 120 PSI in no more than four Clippard Instruments tanks. Extraneous lengths of pneumatic tubing shall not be used to increase the storage capacity of the air storage system.
C. A change in the altitude of the ROBOT center of gravity.
D. Storage achieved by deformation of ROBOT parts.

Gas shocks are legal, but the letter of the rule <R1> does not allow them to store energy at the start of the match. Bill is correct in questioning this.

Bill, I would Q&A this if I were you. Asking if they are specifically not allowing energy to be stored in gas shocks