Ball Deformation

[haywirerobotics]

I was wondering if you will be disqualified for deforming balls :confused: as if they are compressed or accidentally torn inside a shooting mechanism or such??? And also, if a ball is deformed or torn, will the officials replace it???

[Rich Wong]

If your robot consistently damages the game components (the poof ball), the Head referee will probably give you a warning and ask you to correct the situation or your robot can be DQ in the next match when it starts to spit out poof ball halves at the center goal.
:)
There is no rules against compressing the poofballs.
You probably have to compress them a little to control the shoots.

[haywirerobotics]

yeah, but is it okay to like compress them?

[Squirrelrock]

so far, we have torn litte (read : 1/8 inch by inch) rips in the cover, but the ball itself still fires straight and as far as normal. i think that they would not have given us the idea to shoot by compression in the kickoff vid if they did not expect us to use it......

....therefore they will probably have many extras on hand at competition.


i hope. my $.02

[haywirerobotics]

ok...but if the balls get run over and shred, will the referees instantly replace them or wait till the next round???

[Eria4044]

I think the key phrase here is "consistently." The odd poof that somehow gets slightly mangled probably won't get you disqualified.

[haywirerobotics]

But will even slighty mangled balls be replaced?

[Squirrelrock]

if the ball is still sphereical, then i dont see a reason for the refs to replace it

[haywirerobotics]

okey dokey...thx a bunch...

[Wetzel]

Balls will get replaced when the field reset crew thinks they look to damaged to continue. Some people are more zealous with what is damaged, some will let more go. There is no "rule" on what requires replacement. They will not be replaced during the game, but during field reset.

Wetzel

[Jon K.]

For more info see this thread in the official FIRST Q&A forum.
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?p=473