Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink
I am not convinced that this is legal.
I understand that your minibot provides all the energy for vertical movement - no energy comes from the hostbot. However, there is more to Rule <G19> than just where the energy comes from. It also requires all such energy to be
provided "after the start of DEPLOYMENT". Section 1.6 of the game manual defines the start of DEPLOYMENT as the moment at which the minibot first crosses the vertical projection of the tower base (not when the clock reaches 10 seconds, and not when you press the "deploy" button on the control panel). The "blue box" advisory on <G19> states that "Energy for vertical movement may not be stored in the MINIBOT before DEPLOYMENT". It provides an exception for "incidental kinetic energy stored in the motors or wheels, but NOT, for example, in a flywheel". Nearly two weeks ago, I posted a question on Q&A asking whether the self-generated horizontal kinetic energy in a minibot prior "DEPLOYMENT" would be considered "incidental" (therefore legal) or "stored" (therefore illegal). Clearly, the minibot benefits from it. We were considering this approach and were trying to get clarity before the Championship. My question was not answered.
There is another Q&A topic regarding this issue. The response has been interpreted as an approval of ramp-style deployment, but the question is conditioned on "after deploying the minibot" and the answer also includes the phrase "after the start of DEPLOYMENT". Perhaps we understand deployment differently.
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The GDC as repeatedly told us to look to the "spirit of the rule" when splitting hairs and parsing language in situations such as this. It is clearly the intent of the deployment rules that the minibot's climb not be aided by any external or stored energy source other than from its own motors. Having the minibot self-deploy using its own motors is not only in keeping with this intent, but goes even beyond it, in that it does not even use external energy to perform the act of horizontal deployment, as every other FRC robot does and is allowed to do. The rotation of the motor shafts and rollers "prior" to deployment are exactly the incidental kinetic energy the GDC has ruled as allowable. The horizontal motion gained is no different than the horizontal motion gained by every other deployment method, and is even more conservative in that it uses no external device.