Viquar, et al.,

 no, no, absolutely not.  Anything that the team touches and places on
the field for action must be *completely* within Base.  That includes
every robot attachment and all cargo.

The entire robot, all the robot attachments, and all robot cargo must
be completely within Base and stationary before the robot is
restarted. Rule 16:  "For the match start and all restarts, EVERY BIT
of the robot, including its installed attachments & wires, everything
touching it, and any objects it is about to move or use, must ALL fit
COMPLETELY in Base."

Any object that the team places in Base for the robot to encounter
while traveling through Base (this is Staging, Rule 14) must be
completely in Base.


Attachments:
Anything that you build and connect to the robot ("connect" means that
it fails the Gravity Test in Rule 10) is part of the robot.  Typically
we refer to assemblies that the team puts on and takes off the robot
as attachments.  Other things that the team builds that aren't the
robot (connected to the NXT or RCX brick) or attachments are called
"non-robot equipment" or "strategic objects" (Rule 4).

Mission models are never attachments to the robot--for one thing, your
team didn't make them.  A mission model being transported by the robot
is Cargo (Rule 11).

In the particular case of sending the trailer back to the dock from
Base,  Rule 16 also states "All mission models in Base must be able to
pass the gravity test."  So the trailer may not be "connected" to the
robot as part of a restart, so you wouldn't consider it to be attached
in any sense.

So, no, the refrigerated trailer will never be considered to be an
attachment of the robot.

Footnote:  There was one Robot Game about 5 years ago when it was
possibly advantageous for the team to decide whether an object should
be considered in Base (or a storage area) or still in play.  It's
highly unlikely that that will be the case for the trailer this year,
but referees will deal with that if it arises.  If the team touches
the robot or its cargo, then all of those items must be taken into
Base anyway, so this caveat would only apply to objects that were not
cargo when the robot/cargo was touched.

Steve Scherr
VA/DC FLL Referee Advisor


On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 8:48 AM, Viquar Shaikh <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello
>
> At the time of returning the refrigerated trailer to the dock area - is the
> refrigerated trailer considered an 'attachment' of the robot?? In other
> words, can the trailer be partly outside base while the robot in its
> entirety be in base??
>
> --
> Thanks,
> Viquar
> Team # 1371
> ________________________________
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit
> https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave
> the list".
> VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L.
> Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to
> subscribe.

-- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list".

-- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.