Hello CD,
I am the Safety Captain for 2012 Granite Sate Regional Chairman’s Award recipients Team 1058 PVC Pirates. I would like to hear what other teams are doing as Safety practices. I am a freshman and need much advice.
Thanks for posting!
Hello,
I may not be the safety captain but at our meetings we have a so called safety minute where our captain talks about a safe thing each week and adds stories of the people not being so safe in the workplace. I do not know how your shop/ build area is setup but one important thing is to always where safety glasses, as well as proper clothing, plus people with longer hair should have it pulled back. I hoped this helped and just ask if you have any questions!
Sorry for the huge unorganized list. It’s just a dump of my ideas.
The biggest thing that I see is the attire.
Attire for those planning to be in the pit:
- Closed Toed Shoes
- Long Pants (Jeans)
- Long hair should be restrained in some fashion
Make sure everyone that is planning on going to the pit has safety glasses.
Where does everyone meet in case of emergency?
Have a list of all students, telephone numbers, and emergency contact information.
Have a First Aid kit in your pit, stocked.
Find out where the First Aid station is in the pit area.
Keep your pit clean and organized, don’t stack boxes too high, and keep the crowd around your pit to a minimal.
Make sure people are clear from your robot if you are running it in the pit, and absolutely no one should be putting their fingers near moving parts when the robot is energized… even if it’s disabled or not running code.
Don’t scream obnoxiously “ROBOT!!! ROBOT!!! ROBOT COMING THROUGH!!!” Besides it being obnoxious, it raises the already high noise levels in the pit area, pisses people off, and really doesn’t do any good. Most people aren’t blind or deaf, and you can assume that if they’re in FIRST Robotics, they have some common sense. You should have someone walk in front of the robot, sort of like a guide, and they should be responsible for making sure pedestrians don’t get hurt. A polite “Excuse us” works wonders, and I’m not sure how everyone else feels about this, but if I’m in the way, I would rather a person kindly tap me on the arm or shoulder than the cart hitting me. So if someone isn’t hearing you, then kindly tap them, or, the best thing is try to avoid them.
If you see anyone in the pit, remind them kindly that they need to put on safety glasses, and point them to the pit admin table if they somehow got by them without glasses.
Again, sorry for the mess.
I agree completely with everything above. I would just add that it’s important not to crowd the pit. You only have a 10x10 space, and it’s only going to cause more accidents if people are bumping into each other because there are kids standing around not doing anything. Whenever things get crowded, someone says “if you’re not doing anything, go”. People standing around should be scouting or watching anyways ^^
Team 20 was fortunate enough to have a returning mentor who worked along with some students enthusiastic who were about safety to rework our teams safety model. Not to say in previous years we had unsafe practices, but this year, we really stepped up our preventative measures and preparation, as well as emphasis on safety!
For example, we hand out “Safety Tickets” throughout the build season to any student or mentor who does something that is unsafe/potentially harmful, then at the big team meetings, we bring up what happened, how it could have gone badly, and how it can be prevented (we don’t name names, but everyone knows who it was anyway, so the secret isn’t well kept 
).
We also took special care to make sure all aspects of our robot would be safe, even though we have LOTS of electronics, chain, moving parts, and weight, which at times posed a challenge but will prove helpful in the long run! Hopefully no robot related injuries this year ::ouch:: !
We make sure that we debrief the students before they come into the pits and they will only be allowed into the pits if they have completed debriefing and received the proper sticker. It would be tough to do a pre-competition debriefing because it is hard for many of the newest students to visualize what a competition pit is like, so best to do it at the competition! It was really cool going through the lines and seeing all of the safety judges with “Team 20 Safety Debriefing” stickers on! ::safety::
Also, make sure that jackets and sweatshirts that have strings coming from the hood are taken out, tucked in, or tied up because those can get in the way/caught as well.
Thanks guys for all the responces!! Congrats Team 20 on the Safety Award! I saw your pit and it was awesome seeing all the safety precautions. I was wondering what the stickers were and had no time to ask. One other thing that i saw in the GSR pits was capes on some of the teams members. I won’t list the name of the team but that is asking for trouble. I don’t know if the full body suits were a safety hazard either. As long as you have the hood off, your ok but don’t put it on in the pits. you can’t see very well and might miss a robot or something and run into it. Thanks again for all the replies and keep them coming!!
Go FIRST