Pocketing Perfected: Isogrids & Light-Weighting

Your robot is overweight. You need to remove material. Welcome to Pocketing (cutting holes in your plates).

1. Triangular / Isogrid

• Concept: A grid of triangles.
• Physics: It mimics a truss structure. Extremely stiff for its weight.
• Vibe: NASA Spacecraft. High-tech.

2. Voronoi / Organic

• Concept: “Cellular” shapes generated by an algorithm.
• Physics: Optimized for stress flow (generative design).
• Vibe: Alien / biological. Very trendy in modern FTC.

3. The “Swiss Cheese” (Speed Holes)

• Concept: Just drilling random circles.
• Physics: Bad. It creates stress risers (weak points).
• Vibe: “I forgot to weigh my robot until 10 minutes before inspection.”

How to do it

Use CAD features like “Fill Pattern” in Solidworks or “Pattern” in Fusion 360. Rule of Thumb: Leave at least 3mm-4mm of material for the “ribs” between holes to maintain strength.

Verdict

Pocketing is 20% weight reduction and 80% winning the Design Award.