Ruling on Robonauts Balance

Originally Posted by pfreivald

I'm glad you guys had a 'plan B' (as I knew you would -- you guys are class acts all the way), because I never in the world dreamed it would be ruled legal, especially given the 'astute observer' definitions in the Q&A.

Please keep in mind that designs like this put the Q&A folks in a difficult situation -- they can't possibly anticipate every solution that a team can dream up, and so the intentionally broad definition criteria of 'astute observer' (which I personally find to be completely reasonable) gives them wiggle room to do exactly as we are instructed to: interpret the spirit of the game, and not try to squeeze every advantage out of the letter.

If FIRST is going to co-opt the sports model successfully, they must at almost all costs avoid the audience thinking, "I thought that was cheating?" Designs based on letter-of-the-rule interpretations will therefore always be a major risk, and perhaps an even bigger risk than they have been in the past.

Yes, there is a cost in ingenuity; but if FIRST is to become a true culture-transforming spectator sport, it can't also be a 100% proscriptive rules set game. (Most games are permissive. Proscriptive games are much more open-ended... which is what makes them harder to follow, and thus gives them less mass appeal.)

My favorite quote applies here: "It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work."

Wow. If you don't mind, can I steal that quote?

Everything Mr. Freivald has said is 100% accurate. There is no way the GDC can predict everything, so therefore the answer to that is to have FIRST be a little less proscriptive, and a little more permissive. I'd say 50-50 for each. While you don't want too much strained and controlled rules, you don't want the rules to lack clarity enough that events like 118 this year happen. I'm sure no team wants to spend time during their build season designing, manufacturing, and perfecting a mechanism deemed illegal because of a lack of clarification.