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I have not read anywhere in the rules that a mechanism can be a part. Many parts make up a mechanism. If it were the intent of the game committee to allow mechanisms to be rebuilt or made or upgraded, why did they not use the words mechanism or assembly.
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Steve I won't argue with you about the English semantics, because I think your reading of the "true" meaning of parts and mechanism is correct, and they seem a little turned around in the rules book. A mechanism is made of parts.
I do think this is one reason that the YMTC thread are valuable. As Dave pointed out, there is no way to write game rules in the time frame allowed that will survive first contact with thousands of FIRSTers without having to be clarified and modified.
In section 5.2 they define: COMPONENT, MECHANISM, FABRICATED ITEM and SPARE/REPLACEMENT/UPGRADE PARTS. I am not sure what the distinction is between MECHANISM and FABIRCATED ITEM according to these rules (and I think I should have been using FABRICATED ITEM instead of MECHANISM in my posts) but here are the definitions.
<5.2>
A COMPONENT is either a COTS or a piece of stock material cut/finished to its final dimensions. COMPONENTS are things which can't be disassembled without destroying them or altering their fundamental function.
A MECHANISM is either a COTS or an assembled collection of COMPONENTS which provides some specific functionality. A MECHANISM can be disassembled into COMPONENTS.
A FABRICATED ITEM is either a COTS or a MECHANISM which has been "altered, built, cast, constructted, concocted, created, cut, heat treated, machined, manufactured, modified, painted, produced, surface coated, or conjured in the final form in which it will be used on the robot." (Again, I am not sure how to make a distinction between a MECHANISM and a FABRICATED ITEM except maybe that this implies you might not be able to disassemble a FABRICATED ITEM???)
SPARE/REPLACEMENT/UPGRADE PARTS can be either COTS or FABRICATED ITEMS. So again I think it is clear that as long as Bluateam's refurbished arm (a FABRICATED ITEM), plus all of the other PARTS they bring, are 25 lbs or less, they are legal.
From my reading of the spirit of the rules (as well as the letter), it seems clear that the intent was that teams could take something like a broken arm home and fix it/upgrade it, as long as it was a relatively small part of the robot.
And while we're at it, thanks for the good discussion.
Greg