As far as the rule book that first provides goes, I haven’t noticed anything regarding food being apart of a robot, just that spilling liquids isn’t allowed. This had spawned and interesting idea from a few of our students: so long as it’s sealed, could a can of soup on the robot pass inspection. I could be missing a rule entirely, but if not, what other interesting things objects could be put on a robot?
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One could argue that since the soup inside the can is a liquid that it could be considered a hydraulic tank which would violate R203g. One could also argue that it is just dead weight on the robot which would violate R203j which rules out any ballast that can come loose or have shifting weight or contain hazardous materials. So the real question is “Is soup hazardous?”
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I suspect it depends on whether you can convince the inspector that it won’t lead to a nasty spill on the field. The only rules I suspect are R203 and maybe R205, which are pretty general. If you lead with it on the end of your intake where another robot is likely to puncture it then you’re more likely to have a problem than if it’s just secured ballast in the middle of your robot. That’s a wild guess, though.
Back in the days of the BOM, at least one team included food ingredients on their list of robot parts…
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Point of fact though - we never had food items on the robot. We’ve also been warned this past year by our local PDPCTRE's Power Distribution Panel that teams should not be distributing food at events:
E112. *Don’t give out food. Teams may not distribute food to others at an event.
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You could argue that the soup is no different from the robot battery.
It is sealed, is filled with liquid, contains stored potential energy.
The trade off is that the soup can requires much less force to cause a spill… but that spill is less hazardous… so that balances out?
When does Q&A reopen?
EDIT: I thought the general theme of the OP was joke-ish. So my response built on that.
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Soup is different than a robot battery. The battery is specifically allowed by rule. A can of soup is not. Since the rules that would prohibit it are vague, it would come down to a LRI judgment call. If it was me inspecting the robot as a lowly RI, I would at least make the LRI aware of it which might slightly lengthen the inspection process.
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Hard to say which is the most ignored rule – this or don’t save seats.
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For good reason. /s
I understand the rules, but fighting for space in the stands can get very tiresome. Especially as someone who comes and goes from the pits to the stands for every match.
If you say, “Robots are actually living creatures and they need to be fed” i think they will accept 
Food for the trained monkey?
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As far as I can tell, R203j doesn’t prohibit shifting weight? It says simply “any ballast not secured sufficiently, including loose ballast e.g. sand, ball bearings, etc., such that it may become loose during a MATCH.” Assuming the can is still factory sealed and sufficiently attached to the structure of the robot so it can’t become loose (e.g. not with zip ties, but with some kind of metal bracket), I would argue it should pass inspection.
If a can of food attached to the robot is ending up “distributed” to people during a match, I think that’s covered by other rules as well (e.g. G105, intentionally detaching parts).
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Look man, I don’t make these rules and I’m not the one who is going to stop anyone here. You wanna go fully Andy Warhol on your robot and end up all Jackson Pollocky… go for it.
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at risk of derailing this very important thread, there really shouldn’t be unenforced rules like this. this rule should be removed entirely, modified to be reasonable/useful for teams and spectators, or actually enforced
back on topic, anyone see those ramen repair videos? that definitely seems like it would be legal in FRC, but I’m not sure how useful it would be with the materials we use.
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Don’t know about soup cans, but no inspectors seemed to have problems with chocolate chip cookies (or at least their ingredients) on a robot
Edit: sniped by about 8 hours
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Don’t know how I missed that…
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So, if I have a factory sealed plastic bag full of ball bearings, that should be allowed?
There’s nothing special about “factory sealed”, it’s entirely possible that a team could devise a container that would be much more secure, but that still wouldn’t make it legal. The risk of puncture or crushing of such a can, leading to leakage all over the field and other robots, would make it a hard no for me.
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I think this rule falls into the same category as speed limits. We’re never going to stop all seat holding, but the rule existing keeps things reasonable and gives organizers a rule to fall back on to deal with major violations.
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Jon’s bored.
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fair enough, but not having a clear guideline on how many seats are too many seats makes it worse for teams and event organizers alike. the ability for one volunteer to ruin a team’s experience at an event, completely within the rules, doesn’t really sit right with me.