The flag is attached to a small flagpole (a piece of dowel, really) and then the pole is attached to the hockey stick with zip ties. The hockey sticks are located about 4" inside the frame perimeter, so when we are in our normal configuration we don’t come close to exceeding the perimeter. There would have been brief moments during competition when the flag ends went outside, however some of them would have been caused by climbing the bump, or when in contact with another robot. Both situations in which we felt the rules and Q&A allowed some judicial interpretation as to the definition of whether we incurred a penalty.
I shared the concern about the flag going beyond the frame perimeter, however, and was prepared to remove it after the practice rounds (or stretch it across to the other hockey stick so that it no longer waved), if required, and would have done so immediately and without complaint had there been the slightest concern expressed by an inspector, referee, or other team.
Normally we try to keep national insignia to a tasteful minimum on our shirts and robots, but will plead guilty to a bit of post-Olympic euphoria this year. Looking back, it would have been entirely appropriate to fly an American flag on the other hockey stick, as we certainly feel that Seattle is like a second home for us when it comes to robotics.
Glad you like the frame… we’re going to have to publish some drawings and instructions so that anyone with a table saw, jig saw, and drill press (or even a steady hand with a good hand drill) can put one of these together. Experienced teams could no doubt knock out one of these in minutes without further instruction, and no doubt improve on it a bit, but there are a few little tricks that we came across that might help out others.
Jason
Edit: To be perfectly honest, we did use a CNC router for mass producing the spacer blocks… but that could have been done equally well with a template and careful cutting… and it was also useful for precisely machinging a recess for press-fitting a bearing in to the outside panel to support the extended shaft from our AM toughbox. If you look above the third wheel from the front, you can see a couple of nuts on the inner chassis wall that support the toughbox. We geared it down with the optional 14.88:1 kit, as I am a big believer that torque beats speed 90% of the time, and direct drive is the best way to guarantee your chains will never fail!
