Our team is currently planning on not correcting ourselves if we happen to fall, which is a scary thought to think about, because if we do fall, that pretty much means game over.
I was wondering what possible mechanisms you have thought about to stop yourself from tipping or to self right yourself.
My input: either basic “wheelie bars,” that would stop you mid tipping, and then you could then re-straighten your robot by giving your robot acceleration in a certain direction, or by a simple bar that would be placed on one side of a robot and move straight up, so an upside down robot would be self righted by this bar extending itself, although its granted that it would be a very violent overturn of the robot.
I’d be careful here.
The rules state that you can violate the frame perimiter to re-right yourself, after you have fallen over … but if you stick something out WHILE you are falling you could get a penalty if you violate the normal robot perimeter.
There’s already a Q&A topic about this (clicky) … the GDC answer is copied here for your convenience.
The ROBOT righting volume expansion permitted by Rule <G30-B> only applies for robots that are righting themselves after being tipped over. Mechanisms activated before a robot is tipped must satisfy the ROBOT volume limits defined in Rule <G30>.
The best strategy - a low center of gravity. If you keep your CG low, it becomes much harder to tip. The real risk of tipping over is the bumps - putting your robot at a 45 degree angle increases that risk… but you’ll only tip if your CG ends up on the wrong side of the bottom-most wheels when on the bump. Keep the CG low, and you’ll prevent this from happening in most cases. The odd-ball cases where you can still tip basically include bouncing when going over the bump at high speeds. Momentum will be your enemy here - when you come down the other side of the bump, your back could have enough momentum to carry it off the bump and shift your CG too far forward, making your robot do a forward flip.
Our plan: low CG, and good driver training.
While all this is true, I believe the real risk in tipping has to do with robot-to-robot interaction while on the bump.
So while Low CG and lots of driver training are important, I believe a good understanding of when you can safely traverse the bump and an efficient self righting system will be mandatory for those who are in the finals.
We used to have a dual-use pnuematic outriggers that would steady us during lift period, and be able to right us, but were cut due to time constraints. We may still put them in if we see extra time lying around, but I doubt it 
Did someone say “witholding allowance?”
Personally, I’m thinking just a pneumatic lever arm on the top of the machine should do it…
Jason
Precisely what we are thinking on both points. In fact, here is a little more detail.
The safety shield to protect the components in the robot from external contact and from accidentally retaining a ball if it lands on top of the robot, will be mounted on pivoting joints one one side of the robot. This shield will have a cross bar that has a piston attached to it. Extending the piston will allow access to the components inside and will flip the robot back over should the need arise.
Brilliant. Simply brilliant.
Thank you!
One of the guiding principals I encourage our team to follow year after years is simplicity and reliability.
The less there is to break, the better chance you have to achieve both goals.