Looking for slip rings and distributors

[Michael Hill]

Originally Posted by Karthik

Agreed about the ambiguity. Here's what I've gathered from this thread.

1. The GDC never ruled about these slip rings in 2014, either via Q&A or manual.
2. Some LRI's, who have final authority at the events, have come out and said these slip rings are illegal in this thread.
3. Other LRI's (or RI's) have ruled these slip rings to be legal, as seen by the teams who were allowed to use them throughout the 2014 season.

This is not a good combination, especially when there are safety concerns about a part. There needs to be a uniform ruling on this going forward. We can't have a situation where a key robot part's legality is determined by which Robot Inspector sees it. This leads to a situation where teams who err on the side of safety end and don't use a risky part, end up giving up a competitive advantage to the team who takes the risk and decides to use the part.

Part of the issue is that teams may not necessarily disclose the use of them to inspectors.