General Possession Rule Clarification
 

POSSESS: (for a ROBOT) to carry (move while supporting BALLS in or on the ROBOT), herd (repeated pushing or bumping), launch (impel BALLS to a desired location or direction), or trap (overt isolation or holding one or more BALLS against a FIELD element or ROBOT in an attempt to shield them) a BALL.

ROBOT: an electromechanical assembly built by an FRC Team to perform specific tasks when competing in AERIAL ASSIST. It includes all of the basic systems required to be an active participant in the game: power, communications, control, mobility, and actuation. The implementation must obviously follow a design approach intended to play AERIAL ASSIST (e.g. a box of unassembled parts placed on the FIELD or a ROBOT designed to play a different game would not satisfy this definition).

Does "launch" imply ROBOT initialization of motion requiring that it had physically touched our ROBOT's actuator/manipulator assembly?

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

I read it as you posses the ball if you make multiple contacts. herding can be done with bumpers, so i dont think that you need it to touch an actuator/manipulator. Think of the rookies if that was the case!

POSSESS: (for a ROBOT) to carry (move while supporting BALLS in or on the ROBOT), herd (repeated pushing or bumping), launch (impel BALLS to a desired location or direction), or trap (overt isolation or holding one or more BALLS against a FIELD element or ROBOT in an attempt to shield them) a BALL.

ROBOT: an electromechanical assembly built by an FRC Team to perform specific tasks when competing in AERIAL ASSIST. It includes all of the basic systems required to be an active participant in the game: power, communications, control, mobility, and actuation. The implementation must obviously follow a design approach intended to play AERIAL ASSIST (e.g. a box of unassembled parts placed on the FIELD or a ROBOT designed to play a different game would not satisfy this definition).

Emphasis mine

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

If you could find some way to move a ball without touching it (A fan or 'the force') you would still be impelling momentum on the ball and possessing it.

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

I edited my post to clarify, what I was actually referring to, my apologies. :)

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

I get it now. hmmm... seems like a good question for Q&A

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

Are you positive, for that would give rise to the question of whether the air (or some psychic energy) is part of the ROBOT [refer to definition] (which it is not, nor of the manipulator system). Someone asked about suction (vacuum), but it would not be possessed until it docks the robot's vacuum manipulator, correct? Much like static suction (i.e. plunger). You could place distance suction under the same definition as "launch," and I don't think that the field or referees will grant possession for an assist until the robot has made contact with the ball.

Re: General Possession Rule Clarification
 

Any sort of remote force fits the definition of launch per the POSSESS definition. The point at which your robot deliberately affects the momentum of the ball is the point at which you are considered to possess the ball.