This year, the GDC decided to make one notable exclusion from the rules: any rules specifically addressing the use of tape on robots. They’ve said on Q&A that this is an experiment “to see if tapes can/will be used in an aesthetically and structurally appropriate manner, without having myriad robots ‘held together with duct tape and baling wire’ appear at the competitions.”
What uses of tape have you seen (or used) this year? Were they for the better?
On 1618, we made extensive use of black gaffer’s tape to complete the look of the robot (photo forthcoming–the one on my phone is incomplete and my camera is still with the girlfriend). Most of it was non-functional in nature, though one could argue that blacking out the two rollers might’ve helped in the area of extra grip on the balls beyond what our wedgetop provided. We did use some to help attach our netting inside the robot to keep balls from rolling back over our electronics, but we wanted to be able to remove that in a hurry anyway.
I saw a lot of tape used to cover sharp edges on Lexan. An entirely appropriate use, in my opinion. I didn’t see any “Handyman’s secret weapon” robots.
We made our spiral our of aluminum, a bad choice in hindsight. To make it easier to bend, we notched it probably 60 times around the inner circles. We covered it all in aluminum tape to both cover sharp edges, and to smooth out the curve so that orbit balls never get caught on their way up. There is little to no difference in terms of looks, I dont think any judge at competition ever even noticed it even though our spiral was only surrounded by clear plexi.
I’m definitely a proponent of using tape as an engineering material, and not a fan of the rules that used to prohibit it.
When the level of competition is as high as it is, those teams that resort to injudicious use of tape will probably be putting themselves at a disadvantage compared to their opposition—but if a team is determined to operate that way, I don’t see any important reason to force them to always use another solution. (If I see a robot taped together, structurally, I might mention that they should probably improve it, but we shouldn’t have to insist upon it as a matter of following the rules.)
Also, there are a lot of tapes out there, and using them can be a totally valid solution to an engineering challenge. I don’t need to list all of the properties of tape that can be advantageous, but one stands out: it’s quick to work with. Especially at smaller regionals (where teams will often go straight from the exit of the field back into the queue), or in the elimination rounds (where pit access is impractical), the ability to make quick repairs does more to keep the level of competition high than does an arbitrary restriction on the legal fastening methods.
There will be ugly robots, no matter what elements are permitted. And if someone wants to use duct tape all over their robot, it’s their robot that will suffer aesthetically in contrast to the ones that look polished and presentable. But if all that duct tape means that they can spend more time on tweaking the things that matter, like their autonomous mode or their gearboxes, then maybe they’ve made a good engineering choice.
I don’t particularly find tape all that faster than any other technique. It certainly is no faster to slip a piece of heat shrink tubing over a wire before you reconnect it than to use electrical tape.
The relaxing of tape rules makes it easier for the 148 pit crew to help unprepared teams implement “quick fixes” to their robots. Sure they may not be pretty, but they may help someone get to the field in a situation where they otherwise would not have, because of this I am in favor of the relaxed rules. I have not seen any “abuses” of these rules (i.e. entire robots held together with duct tape…)
Kudos to the GDC for trying this. Hope it stays the same next year.
We used duct tape on our electrical board when the plexiglass cracked (not quite shattered) and we had to repair it – it was supporting the weight of the battery. Replacing that assembly would have put us out of a match or two, and we were very glad to be able to just tape it in place.
We also used white medical tape and some electrical tape to cover sharp corners – we couldn’t really file down some sheet metal.
Despite advances in biomedical engineering, there are any number of multi-million dollar athletes on the playing field who are held together with tape.
At L.A., I mainly saw tape used to cover (and highlight) sharp edges. There was one shooter that had a potential safety issue of the “finger in the wheel when it starts moving” variety due to large holes, but some color-coordinated tape filled the holes and possibly improved performance (less drag due to having the holes).
On the whole, I think the use of tape was very moderate. While more than previous years, the tape was primarily for decoration or non-critical component securing, and things of that nature. Zip ties still abounded for stronger connections, and for still stronger ones, threaded fasteners were still in use.
From the looks of the competition so far, teams have been very smart and responsible on how they use tape (if any) on their robots.
There are four small 1/2" wide strips of duct tape on our robot. We put them around the outside of the screws on our elevator rollers, to keep the screws from backing out if the Loctite fails, or if the students forgot to use Loctite on a screw or two ;). Absolutely no problems, and a much more elegant solution than trying to use some kind of flexible material and two zip ties.
It seems the fears of tape being used on robots have been greatly exaggerated, and I look forward to a continuation of this policy in future years.
