Late as it is for strategy, I was thinking.

[AmyPrib]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

the long sides of the field are roped off from spectators and the judges- your bot is allowed to extend out past the field borders on the sides by the rules - they can not disable your bot unless it makes contact with the floor to 'return to the playfield' - ie, if it falls over, has to push against the floor, or the drive wheels go outside the borders.

If a bot was disabled because a judge or cameraman was standing next to the edge of the field, I would DEMAND the match be replayed - they have no business being that close to the field to the point where they are interfering with the robots.

Yes, again, it's allowed to go outside the field, as long as you don't touch the floor. HOWEVER, since all the volunteers sit outside the field (i would guess some are within 8' of the field), if you have a longggg arm that is swinging about wildly, they can disable you for safety hazard. The refs are also standing right there at the side of the field and if they feel they are in harms way, they'll disable you.
I don't think the volunteers should be sitting anywhere within 10+ feet, but that's not for me to say. We've had our arm (inadvertantly of course) swinging about outside the field mostly in the air, near the refs even, but they haven't disabled us. If there's an 8yr old kid volunteer that's sitting on his chair outside the field that is at risk, there's no problem in disabling it. He's not "interefering" with the robots, he's just sitting where he was told. Theoretically, the bots should be inside the field anyways!!

Based on what I've seen, I think the refs really try to wait until you're a big danger outside the field. If you touch the floor, you're done. But if you're swinging outside, I think they do what they can to avoid disabling. I think it would be absurd to argue over what would and would not be a safety hazard to people outside the field. Yes, it's dumb if a cameraman is right on the edge, and I'm not sure if they would allow that close proximity, but he's not "interfering" with the robots.
Bottom line, I think the refs are pretty lenient on the safety hazard thing, and if you can't stay within those limits, they're right in disabling you.