Emergency stop button

Dear Friends,

In description of the player in the 2019 rules, in line 348 is stated that “Robots must be equipped with an emergency stop button that makes the robot immediately desist with all motions, or ideally go limp and/or cut power to the actuators.”

I have two questions about this button:

1st) Is there a defined form for the button? Because it is difficult to have a push button cutting power to all motors (20 A), so we used a large switch to do this. Is this acceptable?

2nd) " ideally go limp and/or cut power to the actuators": can we just freeze the robot, without switching off the motors?

Thanks in advance,
Reinaldo Bianchi
RoboFEI Teensize

Dear Reinaldo,

Current phrasing of the rules is intentionally quite permissive. There are no strong constraints on the aspect of the emergency button or its effect. Rules might become more restrictive next year but it’s not the case yet.

For RoboCup2019, the answer to both questions is yes.

Ludovic Hofer

Thanks Ludovic!!!

See you in Sydney!