"assisted" balance
 

As teams balance on the alliance bridges, they (or at least their bumpers) will likely touch the side wall. I would not expect this to disqualify a team from being "balanced" but then it brings up the slippery slope question. How much contact is legal? would <G10> prevent you from, for example, attaching a suction cup to the court wall and using a piston to lift yourself vertical?

This example is probably illegal, qualifying as "attaching" to an arena structure, but what about something that just presses against the wall, like a pneumatic piston with racquetball-type-material on the end? It would be easy to stick this into the wall while the platform was tipping and with timing, sticking yourself at horizontal.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

There is only a small lip on the outside perimiter of the ramp, no wall. Look at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AMaqqmoLgQ.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

What if instead of pushing the wall, you extended over the side of the bridge and used a pneumatic to press on the floor and hold the bridge level through the end of the match.

(assuming bridge would fall if your robot wasn't pushing it balanced)

Any ideas on the legality of this?

Re: "assisted" balance
 

That's what we thought about.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

Going with Steven's post, has anyone found what it means to be balanced on the bridge? I know the bridge has to be within 5 degrees of horizontal, but what can your robot be touching? the ground? the side wall? the bump?

Re: "assisted" balance
 

I don't think the rules explicitly state what balanced is defined as.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

The coopertition bridge under [G41] requires robots to be fully supported by the bridge. I am under the impression that the GDC forgot to mention the condition of being "fully supported by the bridge" for alliance bridges' balancing. This should be up for Q&A when it opens to get the actual word.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

Aside from the rule concerning attaching to field structures, there is nothing saying you cannot touch anything other the ramp to count as balancing. For instance, the floor. The same is true for coopertition bridges (for which you only have to be fully supported if its NOT balanced and you still want the 1 pt).

The current definition of balanced is within 5 degrees of horizontal. Nothing more.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

The rules explicitly state that a bridge is balanced if it is within 5 degrees of horizontal.

...that said, I'm willing to bet that a rules update will clarify that to earn points, robots must be only in contact with the bridge and/or other robots that are only in contact with the bridge. Remember, read the rules as engineering guidelines, and do not try to "lawyer" them.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

What if two robots are completely on a bridge and fully supported by the bridge and/or themselves, while a third robot is on the carpet but holding the bridge level by pressing up or down on one end of the bridge? Of course, this probably breaks the intent of the rule, but this needs clarification.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

I'm not sure on touching the floor, but my team also wondered if it was legal to clamp onto another bot on your alliance (not the opposing) to make it easier to put the third bot on the bridge.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

I see no rules against it, but it will be a week before I feel thoroughly studied up.

Re: "assisted" balance
 

I feel like the 3rd robot touching the floor would be completely legal but would only count as two bots.

My original pneumatic ram would be pressing against the side fence for the arena, not the floor. I'm sure any clarification will outlaw the floor or else all 3 bots could just go stand next to it and touch it

Re: "assisted" balance
 

The first team update says:
Emphasis mine. While I think it was clear that this was the initial intent of the rules, now the intent matches the rule itself. No touching the ground!

Re: "assisted" balance
 

Im pretty sure you can grab an alliance robot, but not an opponet robot. But be sure and read the rules carefully first.::rtm::