[archiver]

Posted by Joe Johnson.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 10/24/2000 2:38 PM MST


In Reply to: Modifications posted by Bill Beatty on 10/24/2000 8:47 AM MST:



Question:
Is it OK to modify the robot after the competition has started? I.e.: having two separate chassis and moving the motors and controls over during lunch. Of course all variations would be within the rules.

Answer:
Our initial inclination was to say yes on this one, but we thought it over and kicked it around a bit and decided against it.

Teams may make design changes during the competition. They are also allowed to make their robot re-configurable. But to have wholesale mechanism and/or chassis changes midstream makes us nervous.

Basically, saying 'Yes' to this proposal would allow teams to have 2 entirely different robots and to pick and choose what robot to run based on the situation. Rather than face this situation, we are implementing the 'Dance with the gal that brung ya' rule.

So...

1)
Modifications of things like gear ratios between matches (e.g. by changing pulley diameters, sprockets, etc.) are allowed.

2)
Teams are allowed to have mechanisms that they leave off or move to another position or orientation, BUT they must be able to weigh in with all intended mechanisms included on the scale. Also they must pass inspection in every intended configuration.

3)
This rule is not intended to prevent a team from improving their robot during the competition. BUT it is not in the spirit of the competition to have these improvement be a work around of item 2 above ('Oh, we just decided that Arm#1 wasn't working as well as we intended, perhaps this here Arm#2 we happen to have brought with us from California'). Similarly, teams that tend to 'improve' their robot when playing against teams of type A only to decide to 'un-improve' their robots whenever playing teams of type B will get a lot of scrutiny, as they may be looking to avoid having to weigh in with all the various modules they want use.

Major re-designs will, of course, require re-inspection. We don't expect these rules to stop determined cheaters, but we will at least make such folks go through the discomfort of looking us in the eye and lying to us.

Again, a little Gracious Professionalism here goes a long way.

Joe J.