Withholding Allowance

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

There is nothing in the manual that limits how much stuff you stick in your bag. You could have 500 lbs in there, if it fits, but I don't think that was really the point you were driving at... it's all about how many ROBOTs a team can have at an event.

The question does come down to the definition of a ROBOT, which i copied in here form the manual a few posts ago. So, if something is missing one of the requirements listed in the manual definition, is it still a robot?

What about a team that brings, in its bag, an extra electrical board with everything needed on it, an extra drive train, and extra manipulators? If they are all disconnected, you'd have a very hard time arguing s were a robot, yet it may be a matter of a half hour to get everything hooked up once it's unbagged. Is it a robot at that point? Technically, no, because it doesn't have bumpers attached to it... but I think most people would look at it and call it a robot. Backing off a little, at what point do you NOT call it a robot and say it's legal?

Then in another issue, how would you take modifications into account with the "one robot" philosophy? To use a simple analogy, If you have a broom and replace the handle, then later replace the bristles, is it then the same broom? Sure, that's a little excessive, but you can see how it applies to robots - you can make legal modifications to your robot until it looks completely and totally different, yet we still call it the same robot. A few years ago in Ultimate Ascent, there was a team here in MN that used their withholding to have a different shooter at almost every event they competed in. They went from being tall to being short to being tall again, using different wheels and different designs... a lay-person, looking at snapshots of their robot throughout the season would probably have called it 3-4 different robots. But from a legality and inspection standpoint it was only 1.

So, where do you draw the line? You have to draw it somewhere, and it's not terribly clear where that somewhere is. And even then, you can limit what's brought in, but what happens when a team (cough 900 cough) builds a second robot from COTS parts while AT the competition?

Reading section 5.2 in the admin manual clearly calls out "the robot" and even says the two bag concept is specifically for disassembling the robot for ease
of transport. So the 120 lb limit is a part of what I'm getting at. The competition robot has a weight limit, and at stop build you bag the robot. Nothing in there says bag anything and everything you've built to that point.

Did they build the whole thing there from COTS components? The way I read it was they brought an assembled group of components.

I'm just looking for clarity on this, this has potential to be either a learning opportunity for a select few or a missed opportunity for a whole lot of teams.