[tlawless]

I think it's best to break up the scoring into points earned by trackballs and points earned by a robot. The diagram in section 7.3.3 helps a lot.

If your robot is holding a trackball and crosses your alliance's finish line, you would not get any points for the trackball UNLESS a robot from the opposing alliance touches the trackball as it crosses the line. Since your robot is crossing the line, assuming it crosses fully, your robot earns 2 points (in teleoperated mode).

If you touch a trackball at any time during the trackball's "Crossing" of the finish line, then the ball is worth 0 points. The rules don't state this very well, but I'm assuming you BEGIN to 'Cross' the line when the vertical plane is breached by the trackball. Likewise you finish 'Crossing' the line when the last part of the ball crossed the vertical plane per the manual:

"A TRACKBALL or ROBOT shall have CROSSED a line when all parts of the object, while traveling in a counterclockwise direction, have completely passed through the plane."



I'm not entirely sure about the third question, I'm wondering about the answer myself. Are you allowed to cross the finish line with a part of your robot during the act of HURDLING?

Hopefully this helps, and is accurate! This is how I've come to understand the scoring, verification would be appreciated!