[EricVanWyk]

I can't speak for the 2009 Rules, look to the GDC for that.

What I can say is that regardless of the rules, please do not mount your cRIO or your Camera to a conductive surface. Both have grounded cases, which could provide an unfortunate current path.

I believe the cRIO's coating is non-conductive (NI, could you chime in here?), but I personally would not rely on that. The PD does have a small self-healing PTC in the cRIO's ground return path, so you shouldn't be able to do damage to it. However, it avoids damage by breaking the circuit, which will shut down your robot and possibly create a "match deciding failure".

In either case, connecting your cRIO or Camera to the chassis increases the likelihood of a bad chassis fault. In a properly wired system, two errors must happen before you short your battery through the frame - a positive AND a negative wire must hit the frame. If you don't isolate the cRIO or Camera, only a single positive wire must hit the frame to cause Badness 10k.