[Wayne TenBrink]

Is it possible for people in the opposing alliance station to observe the current "state" of 469's deflector? How long does it take to change state? How far would a robot need to move (adjacent to the bump, parallel to it) to go from blocking one trough to the other? What are the chances of timing their ball drop/trough roll cycle to block a shot or try to induce "active mechanism above the bumper zone" penalties by forcing them to redirect rapidly as the ball is coming off the feed rails? (This assumes that their alliance partners are busy texting their friends instead of blocking you, but thats another story).

Also, what is shape of the ball catcher/trough mechanism? If you were to define a plane passing through the tip of the ball catcher to the tip of each outlet, would the ball remain within 3" of that plane the entire time? If not, what defines the 3" incursion zone above the bumpers? (As we interpreted the rule when fitting our flat/angled passive deflector panel between our rounded roll bars, we made sure that the deflector was never more that 3" below the roll bars).

Great job 469. I wish we had thought if it, but we couldn't have executed the concept as well even if we had. I look forward to seeing them at MI State.