Velcro Usage

FIRST General Forum
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R05:
Traction devices must not have surface features such as metal, sandpaper, hard plastic studs,
cleats, hook-loop fasteners or similar attachments that could damage the ARENA. Traction
devices include all parts of the ROBOT that are designed to transmit any propulsive and/or
braking forces between the ROBOT and FIELD carpet.

This rule indicates that you aren’t allowed to have Velcro (hook-and-loop tape) on your robot, but there are two points that might contradict that and I want a second opinion.

First, the term “…that could damage the ARENA”. This means that if your traction device is unable to damage the Arena, such as loop-side Velcro (soft), then it should be allowed.

The other point is the last part, the definition of a traction device. “Traction
devices include all parts of the ROBOT that are designed to transmit any propulsive and/or
braking forces between the ROBOT and FIELD carpet”. I would assume that a spool for climbing isn’t considered something that is designed to transmit force with the field carpet.

Does this mean that the Velcro climbers are valid now?

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There already is a thread arguing about the rope, but you are correct reading into that rule where it specifically references damaging the arena. Velcro is legal on the robot internals. We’ve used it to secure the router to our robot for many years.

You are also correct in that traction devices only applies to wheels/whatever other propulsion methods for standard play. This would make metal climbers illegal, which would be far too restrictive.

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This question was answered today with their own specifications on the FIRST blog due to Q&A being down.

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