Kicking Clarification???

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Ziaholic

Which brings me to my reason for being in here ... our kicker is spring loaded. We have some "tethers" that will eliminate any chance of breaking out of the bumper zone, but immediately after the kick we will probably oscillate back and forth across the frame perimeter a few times before the grabber grabs it and brings it back for the 2nd shot.

This sounds illegal to me. The rule says

<G30> ROBOT Volume – During a MATCH, no part of the ROBOT shall extend outside the vertical projection of the FRAME PERIMETER, except as follows:
a. BALL Interaction Volume – Solely for the purposes of interacting with a BALL, MECHANISMS that are below the BUMPER may extend up to the BUMPER PERIMETER, for a period not exceeding two seconds. After returning inside the FRAMER PERIMETER, such MECHANISMS are not permitted to re-extend beyond the FRAME PERIMETER for at least two seconds.

After the mechanism returns inside the FRAME PERIMETER the first time, it cannot go outside the FRAME PERIMETER again for two seconds. So....if it goes out, then comes back in, it needs to wait two seconds before going out again. I think you'll need to control the oscillations. Or try limiting the travel so it cannot go past the frame perimeter--we found that we would not gain significant kicking distance with the extra 3" travel, so ours does not leave the frame.