Take note of above. If the Robot is resting on the field perimeter, it will not be above as the definition requires. I would think that most referees would not count this as Hanging. Addressing the other part of the question, see rule <S2>:
This is the only rule which mentions a robot leaving the field, and it specifies that the entire Robot must leave the field for it to apply, so yes, you may have mechanisms which leave the field perimeter (as long as you don’t violate the safety of the refs/teams/audiences, which would be a violation of <S1>)
Have we seen an official response to the question of “on” vs. “above”?
If a robot is on top of the field perimeter, it’s not BELOW, and it isn’t IN the field perimeter, that leaves ABOVE only. It can’t occupy the same space as the field perimeter.
Last year for high elevation I used the field perimeter to sight from side to side, if I didn’t see any part of the elevated robot BELOW the top of the perimeter, then the robot was high elevated.
Without clarification I would classify a robot ON the field perimeter as ABOVE it. I would love to see a clarification if their is one.
I believe that being ON the field perimeter is NOT being ABOVE it.
“High Hanging – A Robot is considered to be High Hanging if it is touching the Hanging Bar of its own color and completely above the plane parallel to the foam field tiles, formed by the top of the field perimeter. Note: A High Hanging Robot does not also count as a Low Hanging Robot. Only one (1) Alliance Robot can earn points for Hanging (High or Low) during a Match.”
The tops of the the field perimeter are in the plane that they form, therefore anything touching them is in the plane they form and NOT above the plane. It is the same interpretation as we have seen for the high lift in Nothing but Net and high hanging is Toss-up. You should be able to take a flat piece of paper and lay it across the top of the field perimeter walls and the robot should not touch the paper in order to be high hanging. If I am wrong, I will gladly retract my answer. Anxiously awaiting an official answer. (Although, I thought I saw one, I can’t find it)
@Adam T @536Mentor I think on counts as above, theoretically, but in real life, this can never count as legal. Here, a robot’s bottom plane is resting on top of the field perimeter.
In theory, if you look at the robot from the side, it would look like this:
But, because it is realistically impossible to achieve a 0 degree angle relative to the perimeter, it would look more like this:
Here, the robot dips below the field perimeter perimeter because it is not perfectly parallel to the field. In real life, the same would happen, because it is impossible to be perfectly parallel to the field perimeter.
Think of a large nautilus gear that rests on top of the field perimeter with a strap around the post. The robot is resting on top of the perimeter and none of it projects down into the volume of the field perimeter. (Obviously this is a really REALLY quick rough sketch.)
In the end it will just come down to if the GDC wants you to be able to touch the perimeter or not. I am sure they will clarify it in the game manual update.
@Adam T I think your solution should be legal in theory because to engineer something like that is a beautiful feat in itself, but, according to the current rules, I would say it would not be legal. I’m gonna be really picky here so just hang on.
When you rest anything against any surface, you create a dent in that surface. Even if you are as gentle as possible, you would still create a very very small dent. In your case, the dent would allow the nautilus gear to dip below the surface of the perimeter by mere atoms. The robot is not below the perimeter by a large amount, but it is still below the perimeter, thus making the strategy illegal.
This was all super theoretical and I don’t know what the GDC ruling will be, so we’ll have to wait and see.
The deal with that question was that our robot will hook onto the top of the post and as it lifts up the back wheels on our drive would go forward and rest on top of the perimeter to act as our stop; when we wanted to get down you couldn’t just lift back down because that would exert force on the perimeter through the wheels so instead you drive back and a second afterwards (while the drive is still going) you would lift down now that the wheels have been disloged from the perimeter (sorry if I’m not explaining this well). Anyway, that was the thought on how the robot would rest on the field perimeter.
