Ok so I was freaking out last night about this ridiculous restriction, but I noticed a discrepancy in the manual.
The Thunderchickens design in metric so we were looking at the metric dimensions in the table in <R11>. You English system designing teams have to stay within a 60" cylinder, but us metric designing teams get 213.4cm! For those of you that are reaching for your calculators, that is the equivalent of 84"!
In all seriousness, I will post a Q&A when it is up on Wednesday to ask which dimension is the real dimension. I am hoping for the 213.4cm.
Ok, me and a teammate are discussing the 60" rule and we were wondering if you measure from the center of your robot and the center of the cylinder to anything extending out past your robot or from one end of the robot to the other end of whatever is extending out?
A note regarding this discussion: The way this rule is written in the 2011 manual makes it substantially different than the similar 2008 rule. In 2008 the cylinder was the example, in 2011 the cylinder is the definition of the rule.
As an answer to your question, my reading is that your robot must fit inside a 60" diameter right cylindrical volume while playing the game. Meaning if you had such a cylinder you should be able to place it over your robot without deforming any robot parts.
Your second definition is closer than the first, but still not accurate. An equilateral triangle with 60" edges laid flat on the ground would pass your second definition, but would not fit inside the cylinder.
Not from the center of your robot. The idea is that if you had a cylinder that is 60" in diameter, your robot would fit inside it in all configurations. Another way to think if it is that if you find the two points that are farthest away from eachother (horizontally), they would be no greater than 60" apart. That’s a little confusing, but the best way to describe it.
At ~9:43 in the Game Demo Video the example robot appears to exceed a 60" cylinder while deploying a mini-bot. Its ~15" wide sliding stage extends about 17" beyond its front bumper.
Then again, examples used in a demonstration might not adhere to all rules. The GDC will need to clarify the rule. Thanks, Paul, for catching the inconsistency between the stated inch and metric dimensions of the playing configuration limit.
By my calculations of segments of circles in order for a 15" wide thing to fit in a 60" diameter circle it would have to be 1" from tangent with the circle, for a 28" wide robot the rear would have to be 3.5" from tangent with the circle thus the robot length would have to be overall about 55.5" long (60-1-3.5) 38+17 is 55" so it could be just inside the 60" diameter cylinder.
My guesstimate of the slide extension was 17" beyond the front bumper, so your 55" would become ~57". So I think the example robot was just outside a 60" diameter cylinder. Either way, it’s close.
Under R11, playing configuration, the max horizontal dimensions are stated as:
60" (213.4cm) diameter vertical right cylindrical volume
(emphasis mine)
60" (and the correct metric conversion) is listed as the starting size. 213.4 cm is just about 84", so I wonder if the metric is correct, as that would sound reasonable. Otherwise, the bots will look like T. Rexes, huge bodies yet tiny arms.
