Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

I'll give you a hypothetical with some hyperbole.

Team A and Team B build the same robot. Both robots have a critical flaw in them that breaks in their first match on Friday.

Team A is from a city 500 miles away and all of their people are at the event, so they have to build a replacement in the pits with material and spare parts they brought before pits close. They miss all of their matches that day fixing their robot.

Team B's workspace is 3 miles from the venue, so they drive to their shop, revise their CAD model, press go on their cnc machine, and have a spare part in 30 minutes and are able to attend all of their matches that day.

Team B had the coincidental advantage that their build shop was right next to the venue. This is not fair to Team A.

I agree entirely.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

That makes sense. In fact. it's in the rules that you have to do all fabrication in the pits or machine shop during competition, and I'm not debating that. Just the wording of the rule is:

At an Event, Teams may have access to a static set of FABRICATED ITEMS that shall not exceed 45 lbs.

So, being 2-3 miles from the venue means I have access to a static set of Fabricated items that exceeds probably 600lbs. Can we define "having access" to mean "in the venue and the surround parking lot"? Otherwise our team, several other teams, and all teams hosting district events are unintentionally breaking this rule.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

I think a simpler change would just be that the withheld parts must be brought in with the robot barring extenuating circumstances of "Hey we forgot this part at our shop yesterday, can we bring it in with us today?" granted that part was intended to be brought with the robot initially.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

In my opinion the spirit of the rule is to artificially limit (i.e. through the honor system) each team to 45lbs of pre-fab stuff that they have selected before they unbag their robot. I don't care if it's at the venue with you, in a trailer in the parking lot, or at your build space down the street. It must be 45lbs of stuff that was selected before you knew what actually broke on your robot.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

In my opinion, if you do not use these parts and just bring your withholding allowance parts to the regional than you are following the rule. FIRST does not want you to pack up your lab a pnd move it away for the regional (though that's what it seems the rule entails) but as long as you make an effort to actually follow the rules, it's all good. Technically, you still have access to a large set of parts but if you do not go into your lab than it's all good. Just my opinion in what seems to be a huge discussion/debate

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Where is the like button? Listen to what Steve is saying.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

You can allow/disallow yourself access in a situation like this. We will be an hour and a half from our nearest venue, but could still travel back and forth if we allowed ourselves to do so...your shop could be in the next building - but if you honor the access pledge, you are not going to go in to grab parts.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

I think the intent of the rule is very clear. You have your robot, 45 pounds of pre-fabricated stuff, and then infinite raw materials. Drawing ANYTHING from a second robot is cheating.

Not to draw sweeping generalizations here, but teams who are trying to bend the rule to fit bringing extra parts outside the 45 pound limit are not upholding the spirit of FIRST. You are allowed to make a set amount of backup/alternate assemblies and that is it. You have to be intelligent with which assemblies you bring to competition. You can only do work to better your robot during pit hours and at the pits.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

I was under the impression that fabrication must take place at the events, during event hours to maintain balance for teams that have a full shop 5 minutes from the event with those across a country

Can we find a rule # for the above mentioned? And has anyone put this to Q&A yet?

Edit: In reference to the original question, i too defend the "static" side. having an unchanging set of prefab parts is very different than pulling up to 45lbs from a set of 120lbs of parts. I also agree with the previously mentioned idea that pulling a part off a practice bot for use on the competition bot outside the regional falls under fabricating/ modifying parts outside the event similar to what was posed by my first quote and is also against the rules

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

T11:

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Place me firmly in the group of people reading this rule as "you must select a set of pre-fabricated parts weighing at most 45lbs prior to competition, and that set cannot change while you are at competition."

If you could not, if asked, state at the beginning of the competition which parts on that practice robot are in your withholding budget and which are off-limits, and if the allowed parts don't weigh under 45 lbs, I'd say you're in violation of the rule.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Just to put this out there is to my understanding of the inclusion of the word "Static" was put in place so that teams cannot exchange parts they brought in first with other secondary parts later in the competition.

As for this entire discussion I find that there are a lot of opinions and the rule isn't very clear. If it hasn't been done already a question should to submitted to the Q & A for an official response.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Except having stuff in a trailer vs in my shop vs in my pit (all of which are at the venue) is, under that interpretation, an irrelevant distinction. If I have 45 lbs of custom fabricated parts preselected does it matter if it is in a box in my trunk, on my practice bot sitting in my trailer, or in my shop on a table? I'd assert that it is a moot point in what state of assembly the parts are in.

So, as long as my parts are preselected (I provide a list and proof that the parts are under 45 lbs) I should be set?



Furthermore, what defines a robot? I can bring in a spare sidecar, PD board, CRIO, and radio and that's not a robot... If they happen to all be zip tied to a piece of lexan for easy carrying? Is that now a robot?

I admit, I'm just being difficult. I have every intention of following the spirit of the rule (don't bring in more than 45 lbs of custom made upgrade parts per event) but I don't see myself locking up parts in my shop to comply with the letter of the rule.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Ahh that's what I was looking at too. Thanks.

Re: Were to store practice bot at regional?
 

Another way to think of this. The 2 day regional teams have access periods for their robot. They are also limited to the same static 45 lb fabricated parts limit even if they are accessing there robot in their build site that has their practice bots along with comp bots from the last ten games. Before they access their robot, they need to define the static 45 lb. No inspector is going to do that for them or check that they have done so.