[Ken Streeter]

Originally Posted by GaryVoshol

Ken, I think you've spent too much time in FLL. There, clearly the "Robot" is the NXT or RCX brain, and anything else you attach to it. Since you didn't bring an illegal quantity of motors to the "table" at any time, you meet the FLL rules.

Actually, Gary, I think you've hit the nail on the head -- coming from a FIRST LEGO League mindset, a modular robot configuration is very natural. (It's exactly what we've done for years in FLL, with plug-and-play drive bases, arms, and manipulators being connected to a "core robot" to modify it for different missions.) That approach, however, is not traditional in the FIRST Robotics Competition.

However, to play "devil's advocate" on our design and help illustrate what I think is the alternative perspective on the matter (that we obviously brought two robots, not one dual-configuration robot), let us consider a comparable analogy:

Consider two vehicles for sale at your local Ford dealer: a Ford Escape and a Ford Focus. Let's say you purchase these two vehicles and bring them home with you. After getting them home, you take the engine out of the Focus and have the engine recycled for scrap steel. Now, whenever you want to commute to work you pull the engine out of the Escape and stick it in the Ford Focus. When the weekend arrives and you want to go offroading, you pull the engine again and stick it into the Escape. Do you have one vehicle, or two? Sure looks and feels like two vehicles to me!