[CRUSH-build] robot rules and other interesting tidbits from the manual

[Bill Bennett]

Prescript: resending, hopefully "third time's a charm" applies. Tried twice 
from NY, don't know why it didn't post. I am home now, see you Friday.

Hi builders

I made time this week to do a careful read of the competition manual, and a
couple of things were news to me. In case others have also not scrutinized
the rules yet, here's what I found:

Section 5 rule G22 limits the kinds of robot-robot contact that is legal.
Essentially it says that bumper to bumper contact is OK, but not at high
speed, and other contact is not allowed. Contact outside the bumber regions
is subject to 5 point penalty, and a robot that causes damage to another
robot because of illegal contact may be disabled and disqualified. This rule
reduces somewhat my concern about damage to our fragile parts (electronics
board and fiberglass shooter) from rough play.

Guidelines G4.5.12 suggests mounting the radio modem vertically for best
signal reception and "strongly suggests" using only the supplied cable for
attachement to the RC, due to shielding requirements of this cable. So
probably we won't change that cable for a shorter one.

Shooter:
Rule S03 require shielding the shooter but is not specific about what this
means. This Q&A
(http://forums.usfirst.org/showthread.php?t=545&highlight=shield) requests
clarification but gets very little.

Software: R71 says no software written prior to build period may be reused
as-is. The design can be the same, but it must be created anew.

Hope all is going well. I'll be back Thursday night and in the shop Friday
and every day for the duration of the build period.

Bill