If a robot is touching a ball that is scored in a goal at the end of the match, does the ball still qualify as scored? Is the ball, when held by the robot considered an extention of the robot itself?
If no, will the previous rule from FIRST 2004 and 2005 of “the BALL must be supported entirely by the GOAL or wall in order to be counted as SCORED, and if a robot is touching any BALL then that BALL is no longer counted as SCORED all BALLS that are on top of this negated BALL are also not SCORED” be used a precedent for defining scoring in this year’s OCCRA game?
(FIRST 2004 - defining the definition of scored for balls in mobile goals, FIRST 2005 - defining the scoring of tetras)
And on a different aspect of this game, is it still legal to use a ball as an intermediate between the robot and the teeter totter in order to apply pressure to change the tip? IE, a robot’s arm is holding a ball and using the ball to press down on the teeter totter to tip it.
Answer: At the end of the match your robot may NOT be touching the Torque bars (which are steel not plastic as at the kickoff) a ball or any other part of the Teeter Totter unit. If you are touching a ball only that ball will NOT be scored. If you are touching an opponents ball it will still be scored.
Contact of the ball and the Teeter Totter is expected in the process if putting in or removal of a ball and will not get a penalty if it is during the match. Contact of the robot arm MAY be in violation if the refs think the contact was NOT incidental in nature, Their decision is final and NOT debatable.
Additionally it is not in the spirit of the game to jam a ball under the Teeter Totter, or any part of their robot thus preventing the tilt. A team MAY be disqualified for this deliberate action depending on the view of the ref.