Hi all,
For the past few weeks we’ve built for a gameplay meta that I noticed I didnt really double checl anywhere. It seems legal from what we’ve read, but I want to ask with the community as we’re really kicking it into high gear now. Kinda paranoid since we never got a solid confirmation on it.
We’ve a long range launcher that is nearly 100% functional right now, and we plan to try to snipe the 3 point basket from our post in the lane opposite the basket. Given that we’re camping in the lane, our ball feed will be directly from the station. We don’t think that the other team can touch us, as long as we stay in our lane.
Finally, it has dawned on me as of late that we have a part that could be deemed as inherently dangerous. Is a rod spinning a full 360 degrees at a somewhat high speed, even contained within the robot, something that FIRST officials might possibly think is a violation of the rules? I helped build and competed with a robot with a similar rod, but it was designed to not complete a full 360 degree rotation, and that was fine.
With respect to the strategy, you should be fine. Just don’t go chasing after anybody within range of the Alley; that could be seen as a violation of [G45].
With respect to the spinning arm, that’s something that depends on implementation. I wouldn’t call it unsafe just based on the short description you gave, but the inspectors who see it will have a better chance to tell you whether it’s OK or not OK. Because it’s always within the Frame Perimeter, you have a higher chance of not being found in violation of any safety rules, but I would suggest adding whatever shielding/lockouts/pins/brakes you can to make it safer.
Alrighty then…
Currently the only lockout I can implement is a direct programming lockout (power to rotational source and arm is mutually exclusive), and I don’t know whether I can do much else in our timeframe though.
Chasing down other people in the alley…hmm, thanks for saying that. We were planning to eventually venture out depending on how the other team is doing, for defensive reasons, so I guess we’ll have to watch what we do when leaving it.