Image Discuss: Team 356: Drive base ramp testing

[Joe Johnson]

Forsixnine,

I think you are wrong about that 20 ft-lb comment.

What I mean is that FIRST does not forbid storing as much energy as you want in a spring. What it forbids is storing more than 20 ft-lbs of energy in a spring that will be used to power your robot.

If the spring is not used to power your robot (and I suppose that a suspension system does not power the machine or its mechanism), then it is okay.

After all, a gas strut even when fully extended has a lot of energy stored in the gas chamber of the strut (I suppose several orders of magnitude more than 20 ft-lbs), but that energy is not available to power your robot, so I don't think rule M11 applies to that energy -- only the energy available to power your mechanism counts.

At least that is how I interpret M11.

What do other's think?

Joe J.