Entanglement Rule Fun

[Captain Rich]

Hey all, I believe that this rule is new this year. New or not, our team is fretting now that we have to cover our robot:

<R25> Mechanisms or components on the robot must not pose obvious risk of entanglement. If, in the judgment of the inspectors, a device on the robot poses an entanglement risk then the team will be required to remedy the situation before the robot will be allowed to play. If the structure of a component permits easy penetration by an object less than four square inches in cross section, it will invite detailed inspection . For example, nets, loose rope or wire, voluminous sheets of fabric, etc. may be carefully inspected for these hazards. Willful entanglement actions are addressed in Rule <G25> in Section 4.3.3 – General Rules of “The Game” section.

I highlighted the part we are worried about. Covering all 4 square inch gaps is going to be difficult. It includes any slot that is bigger than 1" by 4", which I doubt people will get tangled in. I've been looking at pictures of robots, and it appears that not many teams are accounting for this. Does anyone know anything about how this rule will be implemented?

[Stu Bloom]

Originally Posted by Captain Rich

Hey all, I believe that this rule is new this year. New or not, our team is fretting now that we have to cover our robot:



I highlighted the part we are worried about. Covering all 4 square inch gaps is going to be difficult. It includes any slot that is bigger than 1" by 4", which I doubt people will get tangled in. I've been looking at pictures of robots, and it appears that not many teams are accounting for this. Does anyone know anything about how this rule will be implemented?

This one might be good for Q&A. I seriously doubt that any opening of more than 4 sq" will be dis-allowed. Notice in the immediately following sentence that examples are given of certain elements that are more likely to be closely scrutinized.

[Captain Rich]

Where is the Q&A forum?

[Geoff P.]

FIRST Question and Answer System
there ya go.

[Specialized]

If you read into this rule a bit more, it says that holes in

For example, nets, loose rope or wire, voluminous sheets of fabric, etc. may be carefully inspected for these hazards.

may not be larger than 4" in the cross-section. If these holes pose a signifigant risk in being entangled with another robot's appendage, you should make reparation to eliminate this. Hope this helps.

[Sean Schuff]

Apparently our laundry basket from last year won't work for this year. Darn. We had planned to use a big fish net to pick up the tetras.

No need to worry Stu, we'll pose NO entanglement hazard this year!

Sean