So, we are searching for a rule in the manual that specifically forbids creating a robot that has the ability to fly…my better judgement says that this is a bad idea, but I cannot find a rule against it. If you have found a rule please let me know, for it could change our entire design 
The closest I have seen is G45.
Rule G17 says the robot cant be higher than 4ft 6in, may be it hard to keep within that.
Read the blue box of G17.
One could interpret G17 as not allowing it, but then it does allow for angling and the like…
interesting observation. Given the nature of the game and the new availibility of the 775pro, I could see an ultralight robot being made to fly. It would probably draw too much current though, especially given the weight of the battery and control system.
EDIT: just ran some quick numbers. You would need many, many 775pros to do anything. Each motor produces perhaps 1.4-3lbs of thrust, 1.6lbs of which goes to the weight of the motor itself (which weighs 0.8lbs, leaving between -0.2 and 1.4lbs thrust for the other parts of the robot. Chassis + battery + control system will run at least 30lbs, so you will need at minimum 21 775pros, not including any manipulators you might want to attach.
You’d need to fly low if you want to score points for CROSSING the DEFENSES.
Good luck making a robot fly with the 13 lb battery we use.
How do you figure? The requirement is to “traverses the DEFENSE such that its BUMPERS go fully between the adjacent SHIELDS/GUARDRAIL”. The outer works have infinite height.
plus bumpers and control system!
G44 … a ROBOT “leapfrogging” or “spider climbing” across a DEFENSE by applying force to the SHIELDS and lifting itself over the DEFENSE is a
violation of this rule
Leapfrogging is pretty much temporarily flying. It’s mentioned in the rules, and pretty much says if you do it, do it without putting pressure on the defense shields. Just a thought.
I see no rule against it, and I say if you can find a way to create a flying robot with the parameters given, more power to you
Also,
G17 ROBOT height, as measured when it’s resting normally on a flat floor, may not exceed 4 ft. 6 in. This is saying that one edge/corner of the robot can be more than 4’6" off the ground, as long as the height of the robot doesn’t exceed 4’6". This is also shown in the rule diagram.
See the sub-section on “Shields” in part 2 of the manual - they’re only 2 feet tall.
He’s got a point. The rules do allow for that this year!
Yeah, lets just let 148 work that one out, it would be a nice successor to Tumbleweed.
So long as the top of your bumpers are not more than 12" from the floor… Rules out the advantage of flying.
The amount of thrust needed to lift the the control system+battery, would be greater than the current the battery can provide, even without the fuses and main breaker being a problem. Lifting even the minimum components would require at least 10kw+. Which is more than the battery can output. This would be possible with brushless outrunner motors and Lipo batteries( RC plane equipment), but not possible with allowed parts.
I’ve always thought it would be a fun off-season project to do a fixed wing FRC legal airplane. Based on the thrust folks got out of propellers in 2009 you could definitely make it work, but the takeoff performance to circle within an FRC regulation field would certainly be… challenging to say the least.
It reminds me of an exceptional Dave Lavery quote.
G17 states that measurements are made with robot resting on the floor. Does not disallow flying or leaping.
G44 states that you cannot use the SHIELDS to cross a DEFENSE.
Leaping or flying over the DEFENSE in the space between the SHIELDS, does not violate either of these rules.I would love to see it done and suspect that flying is an almost impossible engineering challenge, but leaping…
R22 is similar to previous years and we have had all sorts of climbing and scaling operations that take the bumpers away form the floor. I would think that R22 is enforced like G17, with measurements made in a static configuration resting on the floor.
A fixed wing could probably work but, would require a big flight surface. Perhaps the control system with router, would not have sufficient range to comfortably fly the aircraft without risk of loss of communication.