I have been pondering as to why there is a limit to the number of motors allowed on a robot, but no limit to the number of pneumatic cylinders allowed on a robot. There are probably several reasons for this.
- to encourage more teams to use pneumatics?
- the weight penalty of pneumatics could be considered the limiting factor, so no stipulated limit is required?
- the Cortex will not easily handle more than 10 / 12 motors?
- motors numbers are limited to keep team costs manageable? Not sure why pneumatics would not also be considered in this manner?
The common power sources for motion on a robot are:
- Motors
- Pneumatic cylinders
- Rubbers bands
Motors are limited in number while pneumatic cylinders and rubber bands are not. Does this mean that pneumatic cylinders are considered to be more closely aligned in performance to rubber bands than to motors?
I am interested as to what people think about allowing unlimited pneumatic cylinders but only limited motors. To keep things simple, I am disregarding the number of pneumatic reservoirs and only considering the number of cylinders as they are providing the motion. Poll options are:
- Infinite motors and infinite cylinders (open slather).
- Limited motors but infinite cylinders (status quo).
- Limited motors and limited cylinders (bring in cylinder limit).
- Add motors plus cylinders to a combined limit where 2 cylinders = 1 motor (team decides how to balance between motors and cylinders)