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Originally Posted by Stu Bloom
II do, however, think one change might be in order. I agree with most that the weight limit should NOT be increased, but since we are changing out batteries throughout the competitions, and we are subject to "spot" weight checks (which I think are a good thing) I think the official weight should be spec'd W/O battery. I would like to see the limit at 120 (or whatever makes sense) without battery.
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This would certainly remove all possibility of a team using a battery with the innards removed for weigh in, as some have been rumored to do in the past. Note: I have no personal knowledge of such an occurrence, but I have heard rumors about it for years. I am not picking on any particular team as I can't remember any that those particular rumors have been directed at. I think it is an urban legend myself, but it could happen ....
As an inspector, I have tried to always make sure that the robot could actually operate with the weight-in battery to minimize the chance this could occur. As a team member, we've always weighed both our batteries and marked them so we knew which one to use for weigh-in. Some years it has made a difference and others it hasn't.
Yes the scales have varied from event to event in the past. In Houston I think the difference between the scales that were there was like four pounds. I know there was one scale in particular that we directed robots that were just barely overweight to. The inspectors had no clue as to which one (if any) was "right". This year seemed to be better and I noticed that they had calibration weights in the inspection area at the events I attended. So let's not beat on a problem from past years that has been fixed.
Personally I think that robots should be weighed every time they enter the competition area. Just put a scale at the robot entrance to the arena. Before you can enter, one of the crew must verify that you meet weight. It would certainly stop complaints that "so and so put an entire new arm on after they weighed in". While it would make things a little bit more difficult for the queuing crew, it might also prompt teams to be a little more prompt for their matches. If teams knew they were going to need to weigh-in and there might be a line then maybe they would leave their pit before the very last second.
I know in LA we inspectors tried to watch out for the "morphing robots". If we recognized that a robot was sporting a new appendage, then we would send the team back to the scale. But it would probably have been pretty easy to slip several pounds of ballast past us, if it wasn't too obvious.