[cfair]

Since this thread has the ear of the inspectors, can I ask if there's any history of teams using low pressure (a vacuum cleaner) to increase the normal force of their wheels? It would do a service to the event by cleaning the carpet! It could be in the form of a wide, non-contacting nozzle that essentially sucks up the carpet (it would need a pretty small gap all around to hold any pressure difference), or in the form of smaller feet that actually contact and (dare I say it?) attach. Think of air-bearing pucks on CMMs: with a positive pressure they are bearings; with a negative pressure they are brakes. I know in a very early game (2003?) some teams used suction devices to attach to a HDPE platform in the endgame.

I'm kinda with Max Boord here in that the nature of the game is to attach to the carpet. Would a single 24" diameter "foot" coated with roughtop be considered illegal - it probably won't damage the carpet, but the other robots trying to push you around probably will.