Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
Come on, of course this fits in the pneumatics rules.
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Is the intent of the pneumatics section to restrict any pressurized gas, to restrict air specifically, to restrict any gas used as a working fluid or to restrict air as a working fluid? To what extent are they intended as a game-balancing constraint, and to what extent a safety constraint? Is gas storage the only requirement, or is there also a requirement to be able to do work with the stored gas? And what if that work can only be done in a failure mode? What do the three stated exceptions (gas shocks, tires and vacuum) imply about the intent of the constraints? I don't think it's as clear-cut as you propose—but your interpretation is clearly plausible.
To the extent that safety is affected, R08 is a sufficient basis to rule case by case. There's no need to apply the pneumatic rules to every
possible case if an unsafe condition exists—that's already grounds to prohibit it. And if it's a game-balancing constraint, there's an opportunity for the GDC to rule on it via the Q&A. That way they can make clear where the balance lies.
It's one thing to need to make a final ruling at an event based on the specific robot presented at inspection, and another to make the decision in advance. Let's at least give the GDC an opportunity to weigh in first—if they're asked and don't provide a straightforward response, then inspectors should definitely adopt a common standard, such as the one you described.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz
If you want to get picky, they are not going to be using pure, laboratory helium, so it is going to be helium rich air above 1 atmosphere.
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Is it reasonable to call any gas mixture "air", as long as it's not arbitrarily pure? (And what's stopping the team from using a quantity of lab-grade gas? Diffusion?)