Taking robot on plane

[Sharky_do]

Hey guys, We have a big signature tournament coming soon and we are gonna use the plane. My team and I could not figure out how to ship the robot across the nation. Any tips will help.

[Foster]

Check in your area to see if someone has a Robosource box you can use. (Out of stock until early 2022).

I’ve seen teams get a 20x20x20 FedEx shipping box, take the wheels off the robot and use foam on all 6 sides to protect the robot. The FedEx boxes are a little thicker than other packing boxes. Then ship it as checked luggage. Taking the wheels off gives you more of a flat surface on the bottom to support the robot.

Good luck at your event!!

[VexTeamZ]

Most of these are for VRC Robots (I’m assuming you are still doing IQ, correct me if you are in VRC now), but they should still apply.

Flying with Robots?

While I don’t have personal experience, I have seen many teams travel with the Robosource crates. They are relatively thin and lightweight and wouldn’t compare to a pelican case but they work and aren’t too expensive.

Robot Flight to Worlds

You could pretty much keep the robot in one piece, except for in this year’s case i would take the flywheel wheel off to avoid bending the axle. Use dense foam about 2-3" thick on all sides of the robot to keep it steady, and on the bottom, just don;t put foam under the wheels, but under the metal. This keeps the base wheels from bending. This is the method my school has used for the past four years and the worst we’ve had done to a robot was a single bent one-by pressed up against foam. I would…

Flying a Robot to U.S. Open

I would recommend getting the fastest ground shipping you can get. Package it in a strong box or crate, and mark it as FRAGILE in big letters. Remove all axles, gears, wheels, and ideally motors (if you can’t remove motors just make sure to ziptie all of your wires to something, and organize your wires if you haven’t already). If your robot has gear towers on it, secure those to the bottom chassis with some c-channel or something and ziptie down the claw/dumper if applicable (basically just secu…

Transporting or shipping robots to worlds

Some of the teams on long flights from NZ have had issues with it. Not the biggest thing in the world but something to keep in mind when planning the trip.

[Jobe]

Make it easy for TSA they will tear everything apart inspecting it. I had 2 22” SKB cases with 2” foam all the way around and extra foam to fill gaps. Robot in one box, everything else in another. They completely emptied our toolbox on the way to Kentucky one year in the case.

[Kajunii42]

Idk if this would work for you, but we got a big 20x20x20 foam cooler from Walmart, and put some blankets and bubble wrap in to fill the empty space

[spaghetti_code]

When we flew to worlds a couple of years back, we stored the robot in a clear sterilite box with a lid and took it on the plane as one of our carry ons. This is probably the simplest way to do it, plus you don’t have to worry about anyone possibly damaging your robot if they have to open the box to verify contents if this was a check-in instead of a carry-on.