[Mike Schreiber]

Originally Posted by Alex Dinsmoor

I must say that I too hate this rule, although it is a necessary one. FIRST is probably limiting the size because they do not want any protruding parts from a robot that could get entangled with another bot in a high speed collision. An arm extending from your robot is more of a javelin at high speeds.

That is a very good point, but I don't think anyone will stay untouched long enough to reach speeds that could even conceivably be considered dangerous.

R11 in my book falls right in line with G14, I at first enjoyed the idea of a near frictionless surface but knowing we can't have any arm to easily dump the balls or any expansion at all is just frustrating and stifling. This rule basically says everyone build a similar looking robot and see who has the best "payload specialist"...Who knows someone might come up with a crazy plan that works, just my initial thoughts.