Quote:
Originally Posted by buchanan
I think this is a reasonable interpretation that ought to be explicit in the rules. Once a mechanism has been used in competition, replacing it with another shouldn't allow you to reinspect as though it never existed. What you've really done is added a new interchangeable mechanism to your robot in addition to the previous one.
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You say you think it's reasonable, but I don't understand your reasoning. Inspection is to verify that the robot follows the rules. There are no rules that say a robot part must remain a part of the robot in perpetuity.
If you remove an ineffective floor pickup system and add a simple bucket for manual loading at a feeder station, the floor pickup is no longer part of the robot, and should have no bearing on the inspection. If you completely replace a pneumatic catapult with a motor-driven spinning wheel, I can't see how anyone can seriously argue that the now-obsolete catapult is still an optional part of the robot and has to be counted in the robot's weight when the modified robot is inspected.