[skimoose]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

I think they mean that no dimension of the robot can ever exceed 80 inches on a plane parallel to the floor. For a square (or cube) manipulator, the corners are the points that stick out the most, and thus need to be controlled.

I like the idea of an 80" diameter cylinder; in fact I hope they bring a big clear plastic one to the competition so I can get trapped inside it...

Don

The corners are the issue I'm raising. Try sketching out the trackball and the robot's frame and bumpers. Even after accounting for the frame under the balls arc, the back of the robot frame barely stays within an 80" cylinder at the frames corners. So if you're planning to grasp the ball you may exceed this cylinder as you reach around the ball.