[Jake177]

In 2004, a large ball possessed by a robot counted as part of the robot. Under that rule, I believe using a track ball in your possession to knock another track ball off an overpass would be a rule violation. I don't see any such rule in this year's manual, but that doesn't mean it won't be there. I suspect that the status of such a ball will be clearly defined by an update.

As a side note, I like to think the 2004 rule was put in place because of something my former team (177) did at the 2001 Hartford Regional. Our robot had one of the big balls in its claw when it fell across the field barrier. The robot landed such that the ball was between the top of it and the floor outside of the field. After about five minutes of searching through the rule book, the refs couldn't find anything about such a situations, and the robot was ruled to be in bounds.