One of the first questions I had when i saw the video. Anyone that’s thrown a frisbee down against the ground knows how it bounces back up and goes a lot farther. The feeder slots in the video looked about 45 degrees down (though admittedly I havent seen the blueprints yet).
Did anyone else think about this? Happen to see a rule about it that I missed? If it’s not prohibited this would be a great strategy to feed them to your robot across the field
I don’t see anything against it in the Manual, so I would say yes that’s perfectly legal. because you are putting the Game piece through it’s intended slot.
Section 2.2.7
All of the FEEDER STATIONS consist of a 44 in. wide shield of clear polycarbonate. In the center of the shield are three horizontal FEEDER SLOTS, 12 in. wide by 3 in. high. These slots are located 22 in., 42 in. and 62 in. from the FIELD carpet to the bottom of the slot. Each slot has a slide attached to it on the FEEDER side of the plastic. These slides are 8 in. long and are at a 30-degree incline.
(my emphasis)
I imagine that it would be hard to throw a frisbee through an eight inch long slot. Anybody tried yet?
Can we make a device to throw it accurately through the slot or is that not allowed?
I don’t think that would be allowed.
G34 Only FEEDERS may touch DISCS. Inadvertent or inconsequential contact by others will not be penalized. Violation: FOUL
I don’t see the eight inches being the problem, I see the incline being the problem. If you actually want to throw the disc through the slot, you’re going to be aiming straight down, and drawing it out makes me wonder whether a bounce shot through that slot is even possible.
Looking at the videos and pictures of the feeder station, it’s definitely going to be a tight fit if you plan on throwing them.
We were at the kickoff with the real field and there is going to be no way to throw through the feeder slots. You might be able to push really hard and have it go a little further, but there won’t be enough momentum to bounce and go further. The slot is really just big enough for the disks, to the point that several people got them stuck in there a bit when trying to push them through.
I’m not undstandimg how the slots are 8 inches long. Aren’t the frisbees 10.625 inches wide in diameter?
I guess that’s that then. Thanks
The incline is 8 inches and it is open on the ends. The slot itself is wider and taller than the Frisbees (12x3)
Wow. How exactly did they get them stuck? All I can imagine is that the far lip of the disc rubbed up against the top of the slot as they pushed down the close end of the disc, and since the stuff is polycarb I find it hard to believe that the friction would be strong enough to do that.
As Trent said, the slots themselves are 12" wide and 3" tall. The 8 inches refers to the length, or depth, of the tube that it has to pass through as it goes into the field.
Ah, thank you for the clarification.