[Karthik]

Originally Posted by Paul Copioli

OK so looking at the rule as written, even without the Q&A clarification, these actions are, by the letter of the rule, illegal. Here is the Rule as copied from the manual:

I agree with Paul, this rule as currently written is pretty cut and dry. Robots grabbing totes that are still in contact with the chute is illegal.

There's been a lot of discussion here of whether or not this "should" be illegal. I agree with the points some people have brought up about how this current ruling would negatively impact game play. That being said, there are other factors in play that might be more important.

1. This is the rule that has been in play for all teams for the past 9 crucial days of the build season. Many teams may have already finalized designs that would be impacted by this rule change. In general I loathe any sort of design affecting mid season rule change, unless it is precipitated by a safety issue.
2. I'm only guessing when it comes to the intent of this rule, but I think this rule was put into play to prevent a robot from accidentally forcing a tote back up the chute into the face of a Human Player. If a Robot is designed to suck a tote out of the chute with high speed intake wheels, an accidentally reversed wheel could easily lead to tote being shot back out the chute in a dangerous manner.

So, the GDC has a tough decision to make here. Leave the rule as it is, which means game play might not be as exciting as it could be, or make a change that would be both design effecting and potentially unsafe. Not an easy call at all.

In terms of the safety issue, I find it somewhat strange that they would suddenly be worrying about human players getting hit by game pieces, when last year we were allowed to shoot giant heavy balls out of the field, directly at Human Players, volunteers, and spectators. On the other hand, you can never fault anyone for getting serious about safety.

Here are some possible suggestions that might balance some of the competing interests here.

1. Add a back door to the chute and don't let Robots touch a tote until the back door is shut. This back door would prevent totes from being shot back towards the Human Player and would eliminate pretty much any safety concern. It would make human loading slower, but at least robots could still suck the totes out like many people in this thread desire. The problem with this solution is that it would require an engineering change to the fields, something that may or may not be feasible at this point.

2. Let robots touch totes that are still touching the chute, provided that the robot is completely at rest. This would prevent the case where a tote hits a spinning wheel and goes flying backwards. Of course the problem with this is that it becomes something that refs have to watch and enforce.