Velcro tread

[timytamy]

I was thinking about hi-traction treads, and was thinking, how about (hook) Velcro? Roughtop top treads are a very mild form of Velcro (they certainly pick up fluff), and the strong shear strength and (relatively) low peel strength would make them work on wheels (albeit probably very inefficiently) and have amazing traction. I understand no-one is the GDC and can't comment on 2015 rules, but for this discussion let's consider the 2014 manual.

A brief search found two relevant rules:

Originally Posted by [R6]

Traction devices may not have surface features such as metal, sandpaper, hard plastic studs, cleats, or similar attachments. Traction devices include all parts of the ROBOT that are designed to transmit any propulsive and/or braking forces between the ROBOT and FIELD carpet.

Originally Posted by [G10]

The following actions are prohibited with regards to interaction with FIELD elements (items A-D exclude BALLS):
A. grabbing,
B. grasping
C. grappling
D. attaching to,
E. damaging,
F. becoming entangled

[R6] doesn't explicitly ban Velcro, but It could still be rulled illegal as a "similar attachment"

[G10] is more interesting. I think you could possibly get around the "damaging" part if you chose your strength of Velcro wisely, but "attaching to" is not as clear cut. Potentially you could argue that it's just a stronger tread, or use something like cheaper velcro or dual-lock that has a different (and maybe slightly weaker) adheasion method. But I'm doubtful if you could confidently get an inspector/referee to allow it.

My team certainly won't be using Velcro, the 2014 rules isn't clear cut enough and it's doubtful that the 2015 ones will be. However I was hoping to start a discussion as to alternative treads and what benefits/properties affect performance, ie is there anything other than CoF that you look for in a tread?