[EricH]

Originally Posted by Jstack14

<R19> ROBOTS must be designed so that in normal operation BALLS cannot extend more than 3
inches inside
a) the FRAME PERIMETER below the level of the BUMPER ZONE (see Figure 8-5),
b) a MECHANISM or feature designed to deflect BALLS in a controlled manner that is
above the level of the BUMPER ZONE.

THis means that your way of deflecting balls may only allow the ball to go three inches into your frame so it would be very hard to make this work becuase the way most robots pull themselves up you will not be able to redirect the ball simply because it will be inside your frame perimeter sometime.

You've obviously read the current manual, but in this case, I think you may want to look at it again. See <R19-B>, which I've highlighted in your post.

There is still debate about what "3 inches inside a mechanism...above the bumper zone" actually means, but I think the common consensus on CD is that that means that the ball can't go more than 3 inches into whatever mechanism/feature is used for the deflection, not that the mechanism must be no more than 3 inches from the frame perimeter. The GDC may wish to look at tweaking the wording of <G46> to match the current version of <R19>.