[wjd13]

So I was thinking of something similar, along the lines of driving off of the drawbridge, letting it spring up, and then catching it with some sort of arm mechanism. I think you should definitely let the referees know about your strategy beforehand, but from my reading of the rules it seems legal.(by the reasons mentioned earlier in this post)

It should also be pretty easy for your robot to be in the neutral zone, since the drawbridge is 37" long, and thus would extend ~25" into the neutral zone when fully down (-12" for the 12" ramp). And since you can't have your arm extending >15" out from your frame/bumpers, that means that when you employ this strategy you should always be ~10" from the outerworks at the very least. One thought is that perhaps you could sit on the door just a second before doing your tapping/ catching of the door on the way up, just so the refs have a chance to catch it.