2014 Rules Changes

[cgmv123]

Some quick ones I noticed are more legal batteries and new vertical projection rules.

A match is now two and a half minutes.

[Steven Donow]

Autonomous is only ten seconds.

[EricH]

Championships has 3 selection rounds, 1-8, 8-1, 1-8, 4th team doesn't have to play in any round.

[geomapguy]

Maybe a new rule??

Exception: Batteries integral to and part of a COTS computing device or self-contained camera are also permitted (e.g. laptop batteries), provided they’re only used to power the COTS computing device and any peripheral COTS USB input devices connected to the COTS computing device and they must be securely fastened to the ROBOT.

EDIT: Not a new rule. Thanks EricH for the correction

[EricH]

Originally Posted by geomapguy

Maybe a new rule??

Recycled rule, at least 2 years old.

[mechanical_robot]

Originally Posted by DevenStonow

Autonomous is only ten seconds.

Only 10 second? Wow.
Instead of FIRST decreasing autonomous mode time, they should be increasing that time. Its more of challenge for teams to accomplish.
FIRST should keep Autonomous at 15 second, though in my opinion it should be 30 seconds. That way a team is forced to do something good with their robot or else they will be missing out on a lot of points.

[Pratik Kunapuli]

There is no end game this year, although I don't know when the last time this happened was.

[TVwazhere]

Originally Posted by Pratik341

There is no end game this year, although I don't know when the last time this happened was.

Theyve had some sort of end game play since 2008 (When I joined) and I'm pretty sure they had one in 2007. So for at least 6 or 7 years.

(End game being defined as the last twenty seconds where a robot hangs, positions itself, fires a mini robot, scores extra points using special objects like super moon rocks or colored frisbees, placing track balls on overpass, etc)

[WeRrobots]

Can we use other alliances balls? What about entering another bot's perimeter for an assist, if it is on our alliance?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by WeRrobots

Can we use other alliances balls? What about entering another bot's perimeter for an assist, if it is on our alliance?

Start by reading the Manual, please. If you had read G11, you would have discovered just how bad the penalty for using your opponents' ball is. (It's NOT pretty.)

For the other one, there is no rule specifically against it. However, you only get 20" outside your own perimeter to work with, per R3-B.

[Whippet]

I believe that this is new:

G20: ROBOTS must be in compliance with Section 4.6: BUMPER Rules throughout the MATCH. Violation: DISABLED

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Whippet

I believe that this is new:

I saw that too. Make your bumpers robust. If they go out of the bumper zone, you get DISABLED!

[atlas]

in regards to the horizontal extensions. you can go out up to 20in in any direction correct? But does that limit you to one <20in extension at a time in the 6in cylinder? Or can you have more than one as long as they aren't 20in?

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by atlas

in regards to the horizontal extensions. you can go out up to 20in in any direction correct? But does that limit you to one <20in extension at a time in the 6in cylinder? Or can you have more than one as long as they aren't 20in?

The six inch cylinder is an entirely different rule.

Vertically, any extending parts going higher than 5 feet can only be extended in the Goalie Zone and must fit within a 6" vertical cylinder.

Horizontally, you can extend 20 inches normal to the edge of any frame perimeter member. Height doesn't matter as long as it's under 5 feet. I have just read the rules but I do not remember anything limiting how many extensions are out at one time.

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by atlas

in regards to the horizontal extensions. you can go out up to 20in in any direction correct? But does that limit you to one <20in extension at a time in the 6in cylinder? Or can you have more than one as long as they aren't 20in?

The six-inch cylinder rule only applies to vertical extensions.