Hi,
My team and I were trying to add some lights to our robot to help it stand out at worlds…
Ideally we would use a small battery connected only to the lights. However, this has been ruled illegal in previous discussions.
We have seen other teams using GoPro cameras on their robots, which obviously have batteries within to power them. If we attached a battery solely and directly to our light system, creating a closed system, then I don’t see how it would be any different to a team using a GoPro.
Would this setup be legal? if not, how is it different to the camera scenario?
Rule R13a describes the only allowable source of power for a robot… since our added battery would not be used to power the robot, would it be legal?
Since GoPros are legal, and run on their own power source, can we take rule R13a to pertain only to additional power sources affecting the performance of the robot, and not just a blanketing statement on batteries?
(As a parallel, R7h says that hot glue is only legal for securing cables, if a team were to make a legal decoration using hot glue, and then put this on their robot, it would be legal… I don’t see how this is different from using nonfunctional batteries as part of a closed and nonfunctional system)
Thank you for your time,
Team 224