Odd things the rules allow, and should probably be changed

[jee7s]

So, this is strictly IMHO, and feel free to shoot me down or point out misses in my reading of the rules I may have made. But, there are some pretty scary things that the rules allow, or more properly explicitly don't disallow. Here are the three that I've found.

1. Driving on top of Totes. I'm not suggesting this would be a good idea, but there's no rule I can find that prohibits a robot from using a mechanism to drive on top of a Tote. Seems like a safety concern as that would put the robot pretty close to the top of the guardrail.

2. Really tall stacks of stuff falling. While it might not be a sound game strategy, nothing prohibits the carrying of a stack of 6 totes topped by a recycling container. That's a pretty scary situation if the green garbage can at the top starts wobbling in your direction.

3. Obnoxiously large robots. Again, as with all of these points, I'm not sure why you'd want to do this, but....nothing prevents you from making a 27 foot long robot. While I can't imagine your alliance partners being happy with this, this isn't explicitly prevented and could really be a downer if the team insisted on going on the field with all 27 feet.

My point in this post is to be somewhat tongue-in-cheek about the matter. I know we could file all of these under "safety" if something goes wrong. But, at the same time at least the first two examples above could be excecuted safely, but if not executed properly would become unsafe.

[mrnoble]

The twenty foot long (or wide) bot may be a legit option this year. Just sayin.

[Sparkyshires]

The size of the robot was purposeful. They did that fully existing someone to create massive robots, and honestly? I can't wait. I can't see why you would drive on top of a tote, that just seems silly and not all that unsafe either. And the stacks will be interesting...build rugged bots!!!

[StAxis]

Not to mention the noodle agreement. Did no one see that coming?

[jee7s]

Originally Posted by Sparkyshires

...build rugged bots!!!

What about rugged skulls for field reset and referees? Hard hats anyone?

[caboosev11]

Also, some things I noticed:

1. Since you don't need bumpers, there's nothing actually stopping you from making a flying robot or helicopter thing. It also could fly infinitely high since it itself isn't 78 inches tall.

2. Both alliances can drop all of their litter on their side of the feild, giving each other 40 points, raising the QA.

[thatprogrammer]

Originally Posted by jee7s

So, this is strictly IMHO, and feel free to shoot me down or point out misses in my reading of the rules I may have made. But, there are some pretty scary things that the rules allow, or more properly explicitly don't disallow. Here are the three that I've found.

1. Driving on top of Totes. I'm not suggesting this would be a good idea, but there's no rule I can find that prohibits a robot from using a mechanism to drive on top of a Tote. Seems like a safety concern as that would put the robot pretty close to the top of the guardrail

This will most likely damage the tote. Continually damaging the totes will lead to penalties for your team.

[jee7s]

Originally Posted by thatprogrammer

This will most likely damage the tote. Continually damaging the totes will lead to penalties for your team.

I wouldn't bet on that. Nice rubber treads with some good clearance and I can't say you'd definitely damage them. We've had mentors and students alike sit on totes in the past and they don't break, so it isn't like they aren't strong enough to suppor the weight.

[Jacob Bendicksen]

Originally Posted by caboosev11

1. Since you don't need bumpers, there's nothing actually stopping you from making a flying robot or helicopter thing. It also could fly infinitely high since it itself isn't 78 inches tall.

However, the robot battery is your only legal power source, per R20. Good luck getting that thing off the ground. It's not impossible, but hard to do.

[jee7s]

Originally Posted by StAxis

Not to mention the noodle agreement. Did no one see that coming?

I suppose we should also call R21 the Exploding Bacon-Pink-Cryptonite rule too. Congrats! Your team has a rule change (or clarification) for the ages!

[pbhead]

Originally Posted by jee7s

I suppose we should also call R21 the Exploding Bacon-Pink-Cryptonite rule too. Congrats! Your team has a rule change (or clarification) for the ages!

Can someone link the story behind this?

[StAxis]

Originally Posted by jee7s

I suppose we should also call R21 the Exploding Bacon-Pink-Cryptonite rule too. Congrats! Your team has a rule change (or clarification) for the ages!

There may have been a few "Hey look, we got a rule!" screams every time a new person saw it... can neither confirm nor deny...

[asid61]

Originally Posted by caboosev11

Also, some things I noticed:

1. Since you don't need bumpers, there's nothing actually stopping you from making a flying robot or helicopter thing. It also could fly infinitely high since it itself isn't 78 inches tall.

2. Both alliances can drop all of their litter on their side of the feild, giving each other 40 points, raising the QA.

Flight is prohibited, as is jumping IIRC. I would double check the manual, but we're probably not considering flight.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by StAxis

Not to mention the noodle agreement. Did no one see that coming?

Apparently not. But we're talking about the GDC that missed the rather unsafe last 20 second hail of frisbees in 2013. They're all very smart people; there's just something about the process that makes oversights like this inevitable.

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by pbhead

Can someone link the story behind this?

Orlando Regional Elims last year. Something went wrong on Bacon and they needed to be a push bot for a match, so they added batteries for ballast (not connected electrically), ran it by an inspector and got it okayed. Then it was retroactively declared illegal and the alliance was retroactively DQ'd after they had advanced. Pretty painful on all sides. Last year's R21 equivalent was slightly fuzzy on whether ballast batteries were legal. It seemed like ballast batteries were probably illegal, but only after some heavy careful word parsing. Glad to see they've made it abundantly clear this year.

Originally Posted by asid61

Flight is prohibited, as is jumping IIRC. I would double check the manual, but we're probably not considering flight.

I don't see any rules that prohibit flight, actually. Though practically speaking, you're just not making a drone with an 8 lb payload out of RS550s, a lead acid battery, and all the required electronics.