The QA forum answer says that a robots drivetrain and or chassis must be touching the loading zone to pick up a tetra from the loading zone.
What if some sort of chassis extension is touching? Like an outrigger or telescoping wheels? Would it be allowed to pick up the tetras then?
I understand I should post this in the QA forum, but figured I would ask here first.
Thanks!
check out rule <G11>- the loading zones are ‘safe areas’ where another robot cant hit you… the rule states that you cannot take advantage of the safe zone by placing a part of your robot in it at all times (ie… tethers, long arms, etc)… now just going into pick them up, as long as you are somewhat close and you can reach out far enough to get to the tetra, that seems to be fine by me… but it also states that you must leave the loading zone before picking up another.
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well, the tetra spitter can go right up to it, but you you all others im not sure.
I think you need to be touching it, thats part of the challenge!! 
well i’m i’m interested in this not because of a safe zone. I want to be able to grab a tetra off both auto loaders at the same time. That means according to the rules i need to be in both loading zones at the same time. So an extender is the only way to do this. the extender wouldn’t be used for the safety purpose though, if anything it would quickly be retracted to avoid any bashing issues.
Wasn’t there a rule about being in two loading zones at the same time? I haven’t read the manual so I can’t pinpoint the exact rule, but I remember someone mentioning that it’s illegal to be in two zones at once
<G16>
Thanks guys. I reread the manual looking for the rule that said that last night, (somebdoy else on my team pointed me to it) but couldn’t find it. Off to find another soultion to the problem.
Can anyone guess an answer to the original question? Can your outriggers be in the loading zone touching it to be considered legally ‘in’?
I’m not positive I’m correct but I think the whole robot must be in the zone. I could be wrong.
I do not think that the whole robot will fit in the loading zone.
What I am looking for is what qualifies as “in the loading zone”
ID: 978 Section: 4.3.3 Status: Answered Date Answered: 1/11/2005
Q: Regarding <G17>: What are the parameters for being “in” a loading zone? (i.e., must some part of the robot be touching the yellow triangle, et cetera)A: There are no yellow triangles in the loading zones. The robot base and / or drive train must be touching the loading zone. The intent of this rule is that you must be in the loading zone. By making it blatantly obvious that you are in the loading zone, you will draw far less attention from the referees.
hehe, sorry. I found the answer in another post
Rofl. Person one asks “What are the parameters for being “in” a loading zone?”. Person two replies “The robot base and / or drive train must be touching the loading zone. The intent of this rule is that you must be in the loading zone.”
There are answers in the QA forum, but they all refer back to the answer that states the robot base and or drivetrain must be in the loading zone. But that doesnt specify much of anything! That is the problem!
As I understand it, the loading zones are the red and blue triangles on the ground. You have to be touching one to use a loader.
Thats what I am thinking too.
The term “being in the zone” is indeed somewhat ambiguous for the four zones (two manual and two aut-load zones).
FIRST could very EASILY fix the problem as follows:
a) For the two auto-load stations, the field attendant stationed at the auto-load to refill it, could simply raise a flag signalling that the robot is IN THE ZONE and alowing the team to do a retreive function.
b) Since there is no field attendant located directly near the human player loading triangles, FIRST could also easily implement a pressure pad in the field such that whenever a robot even touches the triangle, it sets off a green light indicating that the robot is IN THE ZONE. If a pressure pad doesn’t work, then a proximity sensor or a human referee could signal “green” once a robot is in the zone.
Somewhat like the “manual” method of detecting a goal in hockey.
Anyone want to tee this up with the officials?
I think these are good ideas. But I don’t know that FIRST can guarantee different attendants for both auto loadzones at every competition. But it would be helpful to have a signal, but at the same time, the robot design should allow the driveteam to blatantly know they are in the loadzone. I suppose the way they let you know is by throwing a flag when you violate the rule… 
No flag, then you must have been ok.
I have to agree with you on this one, a team should make it their own responsibility to make sure that their robot is “in” the loading zone. it does seem that the best way to know if you were ok is if no flag was thrown from a ref.
So can you not touch the loading zone and still take a tetra if your really close? yo
No, you have to touch the loading zone triangle. From the way they replied it looks like they want something like a wheel from your robot or part of the base to touch the zone. I don’t think they will look too kindly on extending arms that touch the zone, they want the 38-28 part of the robot touching the zone.
So what happens if in order to be in the loading zone your arm sticks over the side lines? Also what are the dimensions of the loading zone?