Need a quick answer about grabber....

[Steven S]

My mentor was saying something about a rule on the radius of a grabber on the ball. I couldn't find the rule there can anyone clarify?

[MrForbes]

Maybe rules 4 and 5

"<R04> Protrusions from the ROBOT shall not pose hazards to GAME PIECES, team members or event staff. If, in the judgment of the inspectors or referees, a device on the ROBOT poses a hazard (particularly puncture or impalement hazards), the team will be required to remedy the situation before the ROBOT will be allowed to play. If the ROBOT includes protrusions that form the “leading edge” of the ROBOT as it drives, and are less than one square inch in surface area, it will invite detailed inspection. For example, forklifts, lifting arms, grapplers. etc. may be carefully inspected for these hazards.

Note that robot inspectors will be looking for sharp corners and edges that could cause injury, pinch points, entanglement hazards, and impaling projections. Please mitigate all such hazards. This is for the protection of team members as well as game equipment."



"<R05> Exterior or exposed surfaces on the ROBOT shall not present undue hazards to the team members, event staff or GAME PIECES. Reasonable efforts must be taken to remove, mitigate, or shield any sharp edges, pinch points, entanglement hazards, projectiles, extreme visual/audio emitters, etc. from the exterior of the ROBOT. All points and corners that would be commonly expected to contact a TRACKBALL should have a minimum radius of 0.125 inches to avoid becoming a snag/puncture hazard. All edges that would be commonly expected to contact a TRACKBALL should have a minimum radius of 0.030 inches. All of these potential hazards will be carefully inspected."

[Steven S]

.......he was talking more about a maximum size for our grabber (which is a pair of circles on each side)
Thanks anyways.

[MrForbes]

As far as I know, the dreaded Rule 16 is the only one that applies

"<R16> Once the MATCH has started, the ROBOT may assume a PLAYING CONFIGURATION that exceeds the size dimensions specified in Rule <R11>. While in the PLAYING CONFIGURATION, the ROBOT may expand up to a maximum horizontal dimension of 80 inches (e.g. all parts of the ROBOT must fit within an imaginary 80-inch-diameter upright cylinder). There are no height limits for a ROBOT in its PLAYING CONFIGURATION at any time after the start of the MATCH. "

[Matt H.]

Your robot may not have any horizontal diagonal greater than 80" This means that from the tip of one of your grabbers to the rear most projection on your robot must not be great than 80". Other than that I can't think of an applicable rule.

[Steven S]

thank you both very much