Ball Preload Question

[MrArtichokeman]

I have a ball loading question: Can you load your 20 extra preload balls on to your robot if the robot has left the lifting zone/it’s starting position, assuming you’re not touching any field components?

Any clarification would be appreciated,

Thanks!

[Collin_Stiers]

as long as your robot is touching the loading zone you can load balls into it, so long as the place you are placing the balls is inside the loading zone.

This is true no matter where your robot has moved, or if it is touching field components or not

for example, our first robot sat entirely out side the loading zone, however our intake rollers stuck into the loading zone, and we loaded the balls into it from there

[Oliver_W]

@Collin Stiers

as long as your robot is touching the loading zone you can load balls into it, so long as the place you are placing the balls is inside the loading zone.

You can load balls into any part of the robot as long as any other part of the robot is touching the loading zone. You could theoretically load a ball onto your robot at any point in the climbing zone if your robot had expanded horizontally (which is legal within the climbing zone).

@Collin Stiers

for example, our first robot sat entirely out side the loading zone, however our intake rollers stuck into the loading zone, and we loaded the balls into it from there

This is allowed if you load the ball onto the tile and the robot picks it up, but you may not load a ball onto a robot that is overhanging the loading zone if it is not touching the loading zone.

[Collin_Stiers]

@Oliver W

You can load balls into any part of the robot as long as any other part of the robot is touching the loading zone. You could theoretically load a ball onto your robot at any point in the climbing zone if your robot had expanded horizontally (which is legal within the climbing zone).

I do not believe this is true, you cannot use your body to move a ball to any location outside the laoding zone

[David_5839A]

@Collin Stiers

I do not believe this is true, you cannot use your body to move a ball to any location outside the laoding zone

Collin, It is allowed.
<SG6> states:

Any Scoring Objects introduced during the Match as Driver Control Loads must be either
gently placed on a Robot of your own color touching the Loading Zone or gently entered into the
Loading Zone of your own color, by a Student Drive Team Member during the Driver Controlled
Period. The intent of this rule is to allow teams to introduce objects into play, but not to impart energy
on the Scoring Object which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone. It is
expected that teams may momentarily break the plane of the field while legally introducing Driver
Control Loads. Teams should be very mindful of <S1> during this process.

Then we were given a picture for clarification.
Here it is

Here it is seen that the ball was loaded outside the loading zone but the robot was touching the loading zone.

[nallen01]

@Collin Stiers

I do not believe this is true, you cannot use your body to move a ball to any location outside the laoding zone

I wouldn’t question Oliver on something to do with rules, he’s pretty much always right

[EvolvingJon]

@nallen01

I wouldn’t question Oliver on something to do with rules, he’s pretty much always right

+1 To this

[Collin_Stiers]

ok so here is my confusion
rule SG6 states

The intent of this rule is to allow teams to introduce objects into play, but not to impart energy
on the Scoring Object which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone.

by placing the ball onto a robot which is outside of the loading zone, or by using your hand to move a ball outside the loadingzone you are clearly moving the ball in a way “which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone” which is clearly in violation of the rule, but the picture shows that this would be legal, so which verison is right?

[David_5839A]

@Collin Stiers

ok so here is my confusion
rule SG6 states

The intent of this rule is to allow teams to introduce objects into play, but not to impart energy
on the Scoring Object which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone.

by placing the ball onto a robot which is outside of the loading zone, or by using your hand to move a ball outside the loadingzone you are clearly moving the ball in a way “which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone” which is clearly in violation of the rule, but the picture shows that this would be legal, so which verison is right?

When it says

The intent of this rule is to allow teams to introduce objects into play, but not to impart energy
on the Scoring Object which will cause it to end up in a position outside the Loading Zone.

I think it was talking about rolling the balls outside the loading zone.
In our previous competition the refs have allowed us to place balls anywhere on the robot as long as part of it was touching the loading zone.