Just a public service announcement about the high stakes expansion rules. Hopefully, you don’t get “surprised” like two of my teams did. I used quotes because we should have realized this, but missed it until we met a comprehensive inspector.
The teams started within size constraints and legally expanded up and “forwards”. They passed inspections at a couple of tournaments, including a signature event. What they didn’t realize was that the “hooks” on their ring conveyor expanded off the rear of the robot while running. They moved so quickly that they never saw it and didn’t realize it was out of size.
They were essentially violating SG2 as shown in example 9.
Here are a few other pics trying to visually explain (The robot shown is a random one I pulled from a youtube video).
Fortunately, the one team only had to tweak their intake to meet sizing (starting with the hooks extending off the back as far as possible). The other team had a smaller robot and fixed it by just adding a zip tie to extend the back as far as the hooks would reach. That way, they never “expanded” past the rear of the robot (the zip tie).
Teams may want to double-check their robots so they are not surprised too as many other teams were caught off guard that day