My Team (Haywire, 1569) generally refrains from using Pneumatics. This year wasn’t any different and our robot is fantastic. I noticed this year that majority of teams used them. Anyone else not use them?
3397 has not used them since our rookie year, 2010. We have just not seen the need for them since then.
Adding a pneumatic system to a robot now is no longer the weight penalty it once was, especially since the VIAIR compressor and plastic air tanks are a fraction of the weight of their predecessors.
They have some other nice aspects like having the ability to be stalled forever and to allow “after the buzzer” operation, both of which aided a lot of teams this year for their 10pt hanging mechanisms.
Pneumatics also puts out the most power (speed/torque) for there weight
Actually our team has never used pbeumatics since it’s rookie team, but is mayoritarily because we actually don’t know how to use them well
For us, our transmissions use 3 different air cylinders. One for PTO (power take off), on for Hi-Lo Shifting, and one for our Pneumatic Brake. Some teams use servos to shift, but they are fidgetey. We are going to try a servo powered brake, results to come eventually. Many teams have had success with window motors for shifting multiple gearboxes at onc, but we prefer pneumatics, and with the size constraint it makes life easier. Pistons are also more accurate on many two-position mechanisms, whereas the same mechanism with a motor would require a gearbox and limit switches/potentiometers/encoders.
Pneumatics are pretty simple, as long as you don’t try to put a 1/4" hose into a 6mm fitting 
We’ve had problems with pneumatics in the past, so now we pretty much just stay away from it altogether.
I’ve heard sayings to this effect before in my own team. We had a pneumatic system in our 2010 robot that had leaks and other sorts of issues, and that lead many students to swear to never use pneumatics again. One even said that we should make it an official team rule: No Pneumatics.
But those students graduated, and the newer students this year threw a pneumatic system in the robot. And it works just fine 
I guess what I’m saying (And I really do mean it in the nicest way possible) is;
It’s probably not the pneumatic’s fault.
The only pneumatics part we really have had a problem with is the old festo KOP solenoids. The SMC ones work great.
The HOT team doesn’t use pnuematics and haven’t for a while. This year they have Vex Ball shifters that they can’t shift, YET! 
Wait… you can build a rowboat without pneumatics? Ooops.
We didn’t use pneumatics last year or this year. No major situations where we said “darn, we wish we had pneumatics for this”. That being said, we may use them in our robot redesign for some Ultimate Ascent offseasons for shifting, feeding, and climbing.
2815 has used pneumatics two years out of five, 2010 (shifting) and 2013 (shifting and frisbee firing).
2815 has missed Championship two years out of five, 2010 and 2013.
Correlation vs. causation aside, it is something that gives me a little pause before immediately jumping to them.
1732 has been using pneumatics for at least the past 4 seasons. We found out this season that a lot of our leaks were coming from off-square cuts on the ends of tubes. This caused them, when plugged into a fitting, to not form a perfect seal. We solved that problem this year with a pneumatic tubing cutter that makes it difficult to make a bad cut.
YES!
These are an absolute necessity. Perfect cuts every time!
Well before 2012 we didn’t use pneumatics at all. But with our octomecanum system last year we were forced to use it. This year we use pneumatics for a whole ton of stuff: floor intake, octomec. system, and disc feeding. But the nicest part about it is sensors, or lack there of. In 2011 we had a whole variety of limit switches that would always break. Now with the pneumatics the systems can be made much simpler and more reliable.
The key is:
-Follow the rulebook the first time. Make sure all your fittings tubing etc. is all legal and COTS
-Do the soapy water check, spray down all your components while under pressure with soapy water and check for leaks otherwise they will be the death of your robot
-Off-board compressor with plastic tanks, we roughly measured that we could put 6~7 tanks on our robot before having an on-board compressor would be worth it
-Do the calculations for your actuators, make sure you arent overdoing it and using the minimum amount of air needed in order to actuate it under load.
my team generally uses them every year but we ruled it out because of the weight that it adds, the space they take, and how fast it kills battery’s and we did the best in our teams history.
On 562, my team as a student, we used pneumatics every year except for Lunacy. We had a couple successful robots, no regional titles, but those robots were very strong.
Since joining 3623 (and even before, during their rookie year) we have not used pneumatics. We were pondering whether to use them this year to hang, but considering our design and the weight penalty comparatively (Our robot was 89 pounds, IIRC) made using pneumatics just for one system impractical. We had no problems without it.
Think about using it year to year, but make sure you know how to use it and set it up correctly. I’d never be opposed, but think about usage.
We have not used pneumatics on a robot since 2004.
It’s not that we are opposed to using them, we just typically haven’t found the tipping point of enough mechanisms that would need that type of actuation to make the investment in weight, packaging, etc…to put a pneumatic system on one of our machines.
With not using them for so long, I think if we are seeing mechanisms differently such that we think a motor and gearbox would work better. I’m sure if we started using pneumatics, we would find plenty of uses for them.
For this year, we were planning on having them on the robot but ran out of space for almost everything. We scrambled to even find room for the battery and cRIO, so even a “passive” pneumatic system without a compressor was pretty much impossible for us. Corner climbing systems take up a lot of space.
-Adam
We’ve used pneumatics every year (starting 2006) except 2009 for Lunacy. Pneumatics are great, they let you put the weight where you want it (the compressor can sit at the bottom center of the robot, or be moved to either end to help balance) and you can add lightweight actuators wherever you want, without having to hassle with gearboxes and extra motors and speed controllers…and limit switches, encoders, PID loops, and all that fun stuff.
Our Lunacy robot moved balls in and out with motors and rollers, it worked very well. That year we got by with only one encoder and PID loop, the rest of the motors were just run when needed.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter whether or not you use pneumatics, you can make a great robot with them or without. You’ll learn different things, depending on what you use. It’s all good.