[Joe Johnson]

I have thought about scissor lifts a lot. They seem easy but in fact are quite difficult to implement successfully on FIRST robots. I was toying with the idea of lobbying FIRST to make a rule against them, but I think I have come up with another, better approach.

I think that FIRST should make a rule that explicitly allows scissor lifts but that requires that every scissor lift should have a clown head on top. The size of the clown head is dictated by the following formula:
Min Diameter of Clown Head = {Number of stages in the scissor Lift - (Number of Years Your teams has been involved in FIRST/4) } X 1ft.

Clown heads would be like bumpers in that they can extend beyond the normal limits of the robot, the associated weight is not counted during weigh in, and other robots can bash into it any time they like without pentalty.

While this rule is likely to be controversial, it would be extremely entertaining and I think that it help more people to see the difficulties of actually implementing scissor lift that is not laughable.

Joe J.

P.S. Heavy sarcasm alert.