[Mike Martus]

Question: According to the OCCRA rule book, Holding a ball is defined as "off the carpet and at least partially supported by a robot or human player". Later in the document, this rule is stated:
"Robots must not have the design capacity to HOLD more than five balls at a time and are not allowed to possess more than five balls at a time during a game. This is a judgment call made by the refs: if they feel that a robot is deliberately controlling more than five balls at a time"

Does this mean that a robot cannot push a ball around on the carpet whilst holding 5 balls? or does possession in the stated instance mean actually HOLDING more than 5 at a time?

Answer:
Herding balls that are in contact with the floor are not in the robots possession, therefore the five ball rule is not violated. However, if a robot picks up a 6th ball and makes no attempt to get rid of the ball PRIOR to scoring ANY ball there is a five ball violation.