[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Is it legal to mount spare items on different configurations, anticipating that only one configuration (which satisfies all rules on its own) will be used at a time, but exceeding the parts usage limit for a single robot when all configurations are considered together? For example, you have 6 CIM motors; initially, you mount 4 for inspection, and leave 2 aside. Later, you mount 4 to Fezzik and 2 to Speed Racer. Is it valid to store your spare parts attached to unused configurations in this manner?

Our interpretation is that the above scenario (pre-attaching parts to a configuration) would be illegal, as our perspective is that a "multi-configuration robot" always includes all components for all configurations, even though only a subset of those components is put on the field. Thus, a team must always be prepared to demonstrate that during a match their robot (the whole multi-configuration set) satisfies the weight rules. Accordingly, our plan for qualification and elimination rounds was to always bring the entire robot (even the configuration not currently in use) out on the cart to the field, but only place the current configuration on the field. (i.e. while the Fezzik configuration was on the field, the Speed Racer chassis would be on the cart. Similarly, while the Speed Racer configuration was on the field, the Fezzik chassis would be on the cart.) In this way, at the beginning or end of any round, we would be prepared (and able) to immediately have the robot re-weighed and/or re-sized to demonstrate compliance with the rules.