Hello Everyone,
Please help in anyway you can with our problem.
We have begun the process of building and designing our robot for the upcoming competition. However, we have hit a bit of a confusing snag which we have found are not answered in the rule manual. Our issue would be:
We do not know how high the robot can extend upwards during the competition. We have looked in the rule manual and besides finding the maximum height the robot can be there is nothing else to consult.
Now, the robot is allowed to be 55 inches tall but since the switch can extend to almost 6 ft tall there is no way that can be right for the extension the robot can make. And, at the same 55 inches for a robot seems a bit extreme and unrealistic for a design. Please, can anyone verify with us whether or not the robot can extend higher than that amount or that the robot does not need to be 55 inches tall, plus more extension to reach the switches and the rung???
For a thought experiment, let’s consider another rule:
To start the match, you must be in contact with the diamond plate. You also cannot launch a cube from this location. There’s nothing in the rules that states you MAY leave the diamond plate.
In this case, you assume that it’s allowed because there isn’t a rule that states you cannot leave.
Treat the manual like this in all instances. If there isn’t a rule that states you cannot do something, you can do it. If we had a manual of all the things you’re allowed to do, it’d either be incredibly long or incredibly restricting. It’s much better if we have a manual tell us what we’re not allowed to do.
I am guessing that they simply wanted to check that they did not just miss the rule since the manual is 155 pages long. It is easy to miss a rule and thus it is easy to get disqualified or penalized every match because they missed a rule.
It’s not easy to get penalized every match, if you pay attention to what the inspectors and/or Head Referee tell you (when you ask, in the case of the latter).
An inspector can tell you what is wrong with your robot from a rules standpoint so you can fix it.
When you are at the event, there’s the Driver’s meeting to ask questions of the Head Referee, and there’s the Question Box for the same purpose. If you are at the event, get called for a penalty, and get to the box immediately, you may be able to get information on what the penalty was (key word, immediately–refs have short memories).
To be fair, if their design required going beyond the legal limits, they’d either take the penalty every match or not be able to perform their strategy. That’s something you can’t wait until the drivers meeting to understand.
I’m curious. Every time I’ve called a foul, I’ve gone over to talk to the team after the match. Is that uncommon? Personally, I hate calling fouls. The best way to avoid this is to go teach teams why I did. That way, they can avoid it in future matches.
That’s a tad of an exaggeration. The rules portion isn’t nearly that long. That can be shortened further by looking at rules that might apply (the list of ports used, for example, clearly aren’t a part of this). It’s possible. But, their tone also made it sound as if they’d searched quite a bit (just, not on CD or the Q&A). It’s been a common theme this season. “I can’t find this rule so how can I know it’s ok?”