"Load Bearing Surface"

[Alex1072]

I guess what it comes down to for me is that I don't understand what the point of this is. The intent of the rule was to make absolutly sure that noone got too clever and decided to make an arm that would reach in and still be "over" the loading zone. That's why it must be "touching" in my view. I don't think the touching clarifcation was intended to aid judged because, as the judges have stated above, it doesn't. The point was to make sure that your actual robot was in the zone, not an appendage, or some kind of weird borderline case that still creates a safety hazard. So, if they're allowing hanging zipties to count, I don't understand why they don't want to allow the 3 dimensional space interpretation. I don't see how it changes ANYTHING at all other then preventing teams from having to add string and zipties to the front of their drivetrain. Since the "base or drivetrain" part of the rule would be unchanged, it would still ensure that you are over the loading zone with your actual robot. I don't see anyone who such a ruling would harm either, since all it does is let people remove zip ties. How would the current rule be effected if "virtual zipties" were assumed? (other then a couple grams of weight saved)

To the people who say that the touching is required to remove gray areas, I would say that it actually just moves the gray areas to a different place. If hovering is allowed, the gray area is "was this robot far enough in?" If touching is required, the gray area is "was it actually in contact?". At the very least, having a hovering rule would have allowed teams to make it clear by driving farther in. With the "touching" rule, the teams themselves arn't sure if they are "in". I don't see a problem with a judge saying, "you wern't far enough over the loading zone for it to be clear". This is a subjective judgement, but it is a fairly easy one to make. I think touching/not touching would be much harder call to make,

I doubt FIRST will change this ruling at this point though, so I guess we'll just have to deal.