Some people on my team were wondering how we would get a robot down from the high or transversal bar. Have any of yall thought about this yet?
Also, I saw this video on the “belay” system for getting robots of 2013 pyramid: 2013 FIRST Robotics Competition - Field Tour - Video 7 of 7: Belay System - YouTube
Is there anything like this FIRST has planned? I guess not…
First thought, really good well placed handles. but it to some degree it depends on how high off the ground the robot is and how large the people on the drive team are. We have some seniors that are also doing power lifting, I bet we can get away with a bad design that a bunch of first year students couldn’t.
do you think they’d let us use our own belay system? It would be highly effective
Rule H301 seems explicitly to allow it, as long as you can demonstrate that it is safe and and doesn’t delay the next match.
I’m imagining hooking the belay to the truss and tossing the rope over the bar or for safety using a pole to shove it over
You seem to be asking permission, which I can’t give.
If you think you need it and have thought thru how it would work and tested and practiced so that it is safe and timely then. I doubt that any inspector would have a problem.
I’m just barfing out thoughts
The traversal is 7ft7 in off the ground, if the robot is close to the max height extension of 5ft6, you the bottom of the robot is about 2-3ft off the ground which isn’t much higher than most robot carts
I wonder about using a typical ratchet system on the last climber with potentially enough extension to lower the robot to a safe distance then just picking it up off the bar. This would be a rules violation in game (possibly too tall), but I bet it would be allowable at the end. Of course there are a few caveats.
Nice idea, I will talk with my team about prototyping a system. Maybe get it approved before our competition since we are going to a week one. (edit: if we where to do something like this)
This gets me thinking if it’s necessary to use a belay. Maybe a pulley attached to the bar would allow to gently lower it down without having to attach something to the truss, like a little crane.
if the robot is close to the max height extension of 5ft6
At the ending possition, I think more than a few teams will be much more compressed, up 5-6 feet off the ground.
No they won’t as climbs do not count if the bumpers go above the high rung at slightly below 6ft4. There is also no reason to pull up so high after hooking onto the traversal
I encourage you to use your own judgement and show initiative. Students that make things happen, even if they aren’t right all the time, contribute more to the team than students have to be told what to do.
TLDR: The belay creates friction so you don’t have to hold all of the load’s weight to stop or slow its fall. With a pulley, you would have to hold all of that weight which would probably be not so fun
The idea of the belay is that it is creates friction so you can arrest or slow the fall of a person (or in this case a robot) with a minimal amount of force instead of having to hold all of the weight with your hand which will probably be not so fun. ASM at Climb Fit: How to use an ATC belay device - YouTube. If you didn’t want to attach to the truss, you could wear a climbing harness however I think that would be annoying to wear all day and they take a bit of effort to put on and take off. The procedure I’m envisioning is hook the belay and rope to the robot, truss, and bar, pull it tight, have two team members lift the robot off the bar while you pull up the slack, then you lower the robot with the belay.
As concrete feedback, I am pretty sure your robot will slide sideways towards the tie off point, instead of controlled feeding through the belay device.
Hmm hadn’t thought of that. Climbing harness solves that issue. I guess someone on our drive team will be wearing a harness under their tutu. Or maybe our we’ll turn our tutus into climbing harnesses. Feel free to stop by our pit for one!
Most likely we’ll just lift it off the bar
I’m personally more worried about a student hitting their head against the truss
Maybe hard hats should be a requirement for anyone entering the field.
The worst injury I’ve ever seen happen personally at an event was a student getting a concussion from walking into the truss in 2014
Well, not if you’re the only robot on your alliance trying to climb…
