[Meredith Rice]

I agree with what others have said that the main purpose of this rule is not to prevent teams from competing with an over weight robot exactly but from having optional components to choose to use during the competition season.

What I don't understand is if this rule would prohibit our team from doing what we did last year. We built and shipped two versions of one component of the robot not sure which one we would be able to use due to the weight limit. The component was a tower with a rotating and telescoping arm used to knock over stacks from the start possition. One version had a rigid tower and the other a telescoping tower. We preferred the telescoping tower because it could be lowered to improve driving, but we could not use it at our first regional as it would put us over the weight limit.

For nationals however we were able to lower our weight with some creative drilling and made the weight limit using the telescoping version of the tower. We never changed the tower during the competition or used the other version and therefore never needed it to be reinspected.

Therefore, can anyone give me their imput as to whether in this year's competition the two towers would need to be weighed together with the robot, the point being that they weren't interchanged ever during one competition. It appears clear to me though, that if we wanted the option of switching towers during a match we would need them weighed together.

Thanks.