[Dillon Compton]

The 130lb guideline is a throwback from previous years. Starting in 2005, FIRST updated it's rules to include a 120lb weight limit without the battery. Prior to the 2005 season, the rule was 130lbs with battery. The change occured for various reasons, some of which are listed below:

-Variance in battery weight: while small differences are usually all that occur, weight variance of up to 1lb have been reported!

-Cheating: On occaision teams that will remain un-named would take an empty battery case, weigh their robot with that battery that weighed almost nothing, and then replace it with the full 13lb battery later. Unfortunately GP is not always followed by everyone.

-Safety: In our teams rookie year there was an instance of a team trying to drill speedholes in their battery to cut weight: this ended up with two very badly burned team members and a horrible situation. The removal of the battery from the weight limit prevents this sort of situation from happening.


I hope that answered your question!

~Dillon~