This is where my not-yet-roboteer paranoia comes in. Id been wondering about failsafes (for heavyweights). Although I wouldnt want the failsafe to fire when not needed, Id want the fail safe to be *really* safe.

The old Phoenix mainframe in Cambridge used to have a shutdown which fired a glass bolt through the power line (we hypothesised it was for use if it ever became self-aware). Id kind of been thinking along those lines for the robot - chomp a (replaceable) wire as it leaves a battery terminal with a spring-loaded nonconductive (ceramic?) blade of some kind, with a small solenoid holding it in place. Strikes me as a simple and pretty reliable system, and probably not too heavy.

I like the infra-red backup idea, by the way.

Would I be vastly over-engineering this?

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Fluppet