According to the rules, only ONE opposing robot may be in the opposite teams area (Only 1 red robot in the blue alliance area).
However, if that robot is for whatever reason disabled (E-Stop, Red Card, etc…) is an alliance member allowed to travel into the same area, without penalty?
Nope. A bot is a bot. If there is anything with opposite colored bumpers in the opposing zone, that is a bot (to my knowledge). So you cant go over if a bot brakes down in that zone
So, if you plan to red card, E-stop, or breakdown, do it in front of a goal.
No, because that is considered intentional blocking. you would get penalties for not moving immediately (or however the phrasing is in the manual).
Plus, the refs would get slightly mad at you 
Actually, I think you ARE allowed to block goals, just not pin.
But regardless, that wasn’t my intention, to break down in front of the goal.
Lets say a robot gets smashed into by a robot flying over a bump and subsequently breaks down. If the estop button is pressed that robot cannot receive penalty’s. So, if a robot breaks down in the opponents zone area you cant send another robot over. Because if that robot also broke down (via estop) in front of a goal, both robots would be immune to penaltys.
However, what about if you sent a robot over to flip your robot back over, the robots are then protected due to the 10 second helper protection.
Basically theres lots of contradictions here. Wait for a team update/ q&a to revise because theres no use thinking about it now.
yes you have the helper rule, but once thats done the immediate penalty for 2 bots in the zone hits you.
They may not consider it blocking if they shut you down themselves. Not unless they think you’re intentionally getting them to shut you down, then i think they’d call it a red card. The E-stop would require some thinking so the judging could go either way.
All im pointing out is the amount of contradictions in the rules as they stand. If a bot is e-stopped it cannot receive penalty’s. So if you estoped 2 robots in front of a goal. Neither robot could receive penalty’s for being stopped in the zone.
All im saying is that we cant determine what would happen, wait for Team updates and q/a all this is just speculations :D.
I think this is the whole “Lets not read this as a lawyer thing”. So yes, i agree 
my team discussed that… they say that if it breaks down, it becomes part of the field, and that you can send another one over. hopefully that is cleared up.
I’m really more worried about the idea of if a robot gets flipped trying to get into the opponent zone and e-stops inside the zone, is it legal to send another bot in to replace it (although with the seeding system I would find no reason to do this outside of elimination)
As far as I can see it, 10 second helper protection only protects from opponent interference. Penalties can still reach you
Team discussions are NOT official sources. CD is NOT an official source. Q&A it.
(And, we just discussed this yesterday, too: http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79751 )
/agree
Just wait for q/a all. And Tupdate. I guarantee it will be made clear what you can and cannot do.
If I remember correctly, back in 2006 during “Aim High”, during an alliance’s defensive phase only two robots could be defending their goals at any one time. Even if a defensive bot somehow fell over or was disabled, the alliance’s third bot couldn’t cross over to the other side of the field or else an offsides penalty would be incurred. My best guess is that the same rule applies here; if your alliance’s far robot becomes disabled, then another robot cannot come in to defend either. Take that with a grain of salt though! Best get this figured out in the FIRST Q&A.
Even if you are immune to penalties as an e-stopped bot…Yellow and Red cards are not penalties per se but rather considered warnings and disqualifications as I read it.
This issue came up on the field today. I can’t find it in Q&A and I thought for sure it was in there. Any update here?
EDIT: Found it.
http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=13742
Sorry for the bump.