Weight

[Michael Leicht]

Who want a little more weight for there robot instead of 130lbs? I mean at the last couple days you have more weight then you need or should have. I think they should add 5 more pound to the weight limit. with this 5 pounds you could open the possibles with 5 more pounds. What could you add to your robot that is 5 pounds that could really help you? so who likes the idea.

[Heretic121]

honestly... i think it all depends on what the game is, and how many diffrent complexitys it has next year... but i also think it depends on how many motors there are, and thier wieghts if they are heavier than this year...

[sanddrag]

This has been discussed numerous times before. While nearly everyone except who's lifting it weould enjoy the extra weight-space, the problem is if the limit was 135 lb, why not increase it to 140, aw heck, how about making it 145 lb, and so on and so forth. I think the goal of sticking with the 130 lb limit consistently, is seeing how much you can pack within that restriction, rather than how much you can expand with extra weight. The challenge is not how many ideas can you fit on your robot, it is how can you even fit the ideas you have.

[ZACH P.]

It need not be increased. It is part of the design challenge.

[Arefin Bari]

The whole point of making the weight limit to 130 lbs is because teams need challenge. This is one way a team can prove how good they are mechanically and how complex can they make their robot...


p.s - i was a little late to post this one... Zach P. beat me to it...

[Cory]

If the weight limit is raised 5 pounds, people will find 10 pounds more crap to put on their robot.

No matter what the weight limit is, a large number of teams will *ALWAYS* have trouble making it

$0.02 Cory

[Bharat Nain]

I don't think I'd like carrying a 140 lb. robot on the field.

OR

have it slip and fall on my feet, or something.

From a designing and robot performance standpoint, this is an excellent suggestion. I could do a lot with some extra pounds to play with. But otherwise, I think its good as a challenge and also for safety reasons.

[Mike AA]

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

I don't think I'd like carrying a 140 lb. robot on the field.

OR

have it slip and fall on my feet, or something.

From a designing and robot performance standpoint, this is an excellent suggestion. I could do a lot with some extra pounds to play with. But otherwise, I think its good as a challenge and also for safety reasons.

I second the carrying that weight, its bad enough to work with 130 pounds.

Get steel toed shoes, they make tennis-shoes made with steel toes, I have a pair, sure they're a few pounds heavier but its protected my feet MANY times.

The weight limit is just another part of the challenge along with everything else.

[Steve W]

I personally would like to see 120 -125 lbs without the battery. One of the problems is that battery weight varies as much as a pound from 1 battery to another.

[Joshua May]

Just really seconding what has been mentioned previously, the weight is all part of the challenge. It is another design obstacle that you must overcome. In real engineering situations, there will be limitations that FIRST also employs, including suppliers, prices, weight, size, etc.

Originally Posted by Bharat Nain

I don't think I'd like carrying a 140 lb. robot on the field.

OR

have it slip and fall on my feet, or something.

I second that, I've already thrown my back out carrying around the robot as is, 130 lbs. is definitely enough.

[Kyle Love]

Originally Posted by ZACH P.

It need not be increased. It is part of the design challenge.

I totally agree. We were like 129.99999999999(repeatingHAHA) and we did weight reduction before we added things, such as our goal grabber we added at MWR.(I think it was MWR.) It is something that is a challenge outside the game itself. We all need to just deal with it. (meant nicely)

Originally Posted by Heretic121

honestly... i think it all depends on what the game is, and how many diffrent complexitys it has next year... but i also think it depends on how many motors there are, and thier wieghts if they are heavier than this year...

I also agree with that...I mean come on if the game has like 10 different things to do there will be teams that want to do it all. And if there are more motors that would take away weight to use for stuff to play the game. If the game doesn't really require that much "extra" parts, but more motors I think it should stay the same, just to make things more challenging.

-Kyle

[Michael Leicht]

i see what you mean now and i think that they should stick with the weight limit of 130 because that makes you think more then just we can do it we have the extra weight. so they should keep the weight limit the same.

[Matt Adams]

I guess I'd like to throw in a few comments on this...

When you look at the weight of a FIRST robot, much of the weight is non-negotiable. Things like the drive motors, battery, chain, wheels, controller, speed controllers and wiring, (and everything the electronics mount to) are all very steadfast items. Even a drive frame, in whatever form, is something that every machine must have. I think that I could conservatively say that 40 lbs of a robot is absolutely non negotiable.

With that said, adding another 10 lbs would really be like adding another 11% to your robots' weight.

And when you really think about it, there aren't a lot of teams that are at 160 lbs (after their rookie year) who are trying to cut down to 130.. they're at 136 or so trying to make it.

I think another 10 lbs would make the game a lot easier for rookie teams. I also think that the powerhouse teams would dominate that 10lbs much more than any rookie team ever could.

And hence I don't like the idea.

Matt

[Bcahn836]

You must also consider the shipping cost. The heavier the robot is the heavier the crate is the heavier the shipping bill is.

[Billfred]

I'm down with the above arguements, but I see two problems.

1) I do recall reading (although I can't say this officially) that FIRST robots as we know and love today are sized so that two average people can lift it and carry them through a normal doorway. Adding another ten pounds would start to make it harder to carry.

2) Adding weight starts us down a slippery slope. If in 2005 we get more weight, everyone'll jump for joy. Then we'll max out that extra ten pounds or so. Then we'll start complaining for more weight, since we got it last year. This, in turn, contributes to problem number one.

Just my thought process.