Those pictures remind me of a temporary robot fix we did once. We were at our practice field, doing driver practice in the offseason. The chassis for the practice robot had been used for practice bots for a solid three seasons, so it had taken a lot of beatings, and had been taken apart and reconnected quite a few times. There was something loose in it, and it kept making hideous rattling and grinding noises as it shook while the robot drove, and loose pieces crashed into the chain. Since it wasn’t our building site, and it was the offseason, we didn’t have the right tools and parts to fix it properly, so we decided to do a temporary fix to stop the noise for the rest of the day… using duct tape and cardboard. When cardboard improves robot function, it’s usually a good sign that your robot has been around for a while too long. (Shortly thereafter we refurbished that bot the right way, if you were wondering.)
wait… food isn’t allowed in the pits??? oops, i didn’t know that
and these pics are awesome!!! duct tape is a great way to fix things and make them steady… for a short while… also using zip ties instead of welding aluminum together works… we did that for our practice robot to save time and just to see if the idea worked, we later tack welded the pieces together once the actual robot was built :yikes:
Do you want food on your robot? Do you want robot parts in your food? (Wait, bad example, every thing eaten at meetings during the season gets covered in chain grease, metal shavings, and other surprise toppings.)
Water bottles have lids at least. I admit I do the same, because there’s no time to stand in the giant concession lines to get drinks, and I’d get very dehydrated without drinking all day.
Studies show that more mentors are happier people if you feed them coffee when they’re trying to think in the early AM. Rules and electronic hazards aside, of course.
It mostly depends on the event and/or venue’s individual policies.
“In the pits” doesn’t always mean right next to or near a robot for all intents & purposes of this discussion of course.
Food & drink near robots is never a good idea!