I recently (a few hours ago) shared my most amusing memory of this season with the FIRSTwiki. For those of you who don’t monitor Recent Changes religously (shame on you) here is a link:
I strongly encourage you to see that video. I have yet to meet anyone who could resist looping it.
Anyway, has anyone had similar experiences? Any actual injuries? Any footage? 
If that wasn’t a rookie team, I would have to slap someone.
Anyways, next time make a cradle of some kind to keep the robot up on when downloading autonomous code. Or put it up on a block of wood… Something…
And another famous rookie mistake is to screw in the tether or programing cable to the OI on the robot… Never do this. Just put it in so that there is a good firm connection but I repeat do not screw the screws in on the cable…
If it goes crazy it will generally pull itself out. Most of the time…
Our problem wasn’t the laptop–it was people.
See, a couple of the guys on our team wanted to test drive Bob the last build night, and they turned on the RC and OI. They forgot about autonomous mode.
I’m working on something else, and it’s moving around computers and tables and such. So I spring for it, reaching for the breaker. Just then, Bob makes his pre-programmed turn to the right, aiming for what would be the ten-point ball.
Unfortunately for me, that aim took his arm right under my foot. I got him shut down, but I also took out a chair on the way down.
(On a side note, that was the third time I’d tripped on something that day.)