Withholding Allowance

[Keefe2471]

FRC is a tough challenge that causes wear and tear on robots over the course of the 3-4 competitions that some teams attend. I personally think that teams that have the resources to build a practice bot that is complete and finished enough to compete with their "real" robot also have the skills and know how to design a robot that doesn't break.

There are already rules that make sure the weight of all configurations sum to 120 pounds, so you can't bag different configurations without having issues. Also, any design that has enough fragility to warrant an entire robot worth of spares isn't going to do well. Even if you had unlimited weight to bring in, FRC is a game of attrition as much as anything else. The real competition in this game occurs during eliminations, and it's not likely you can replace entire mechanisms on your robot in a 5 min timeout.

Also, what about open bag time? Is there any limit on what goes on and comes off the robot during that time? If not, what prevents a team from bagging their spare robot in the open bag time before a district event? I could care less about how many spare parts each team brings in personally. I think that issues with upgrade parts are more of a challenge for FIRST to regulate and have the potential to exaggerate the differences between teams that have resources and those that do not, not spares of the same robot that was finished in the six weeks.

[meg]

Originally Posted by Keefe2471

Also, what about open bag time? Is there any limit on what goes on and comes off the robot during that time?

For open bag time for districts: If the parts are COTS, no limit. If they are not but were manufactured during the open bag time, then they can go on. If they were manufactured before the open bag time, they count towards the 30 lbs withholding allowance on an honors system to verify.

[Keefe2471]

Originally Posted by meg

For open bag time for districts: If the parts are COTS, no limit. If they are not but were manufactured during the open bag time, then they can go on. If they were manufactured before the open bag time, they count towards the 30 lbs withholding allowance on an honors system to verify.

Thanks

[FrankJ]

Originally Posted by Keefe2471

...
There are already rules that make sure the weight of all configurations sum to 120 pounds, so you can't bag different configurations without having issues.

...
Also, what about open bag time? Is there any limit on what goes on and comes off the robot during that time? ...

As the rules currently are and how the Q&A have answered questions on this subject: The parts in excess of 120 lb can be taken off & put back on. You have to go through re-inspection though. If the total of the parts are less than 120 lb & inspected initially, they do not have to be reinspected.

Parts added in the district open bag time counts towards your fabricated parts weight allowance for that event. Parts fabricated during the open bag time don't. So if you are Zebracorn fast, you can fab up an extra robot (excuse me spare parts) during open bag and bag that.