[Retired Starman]

In the case I mentioned above, where a team was using an auxiliary battery to charge their pneumatics in line, it was done in a safe manner, since they were only substituting the back-up battery for their game battery by plugging it into the connector on the robot. Thus everything was under cRIO control. No problem there.

The concern I had is that the rules say all power for the robot must come from ONE battery. In this case, it wasn't. Part of the energy stored on the robot in the form of air pressure had been placed there by a second battery.

Now I know teams can charge in the pits if done safely, and they can swap batteries at any time before the match starts, but in this case, it appeared to be an instance of a direct violation of the intent of the rule, if not the rule itself.

Certainly, there are more pressing issues for us to be concerned about, particularly those dealing with safety, but I thought I would get some more opinions on this one.

I'll miss Championships this year due to pressing family issues. Hope to see you all there next year.

Dr. Bob