Team Leaders, Update 11 came out and there was a significant change to R03 concerning dimensions of the robots. I must say the work of LRI, Jon Stratis, probably had much to do with the change – thanks Jon.
• Note from the FRC Director: (Frank Merrick)
This update includes a significant change to R03. As written, it did not allow for ‘minor protrusions’ beyond the starting configuration, and we consistently answered Q&A questions to that effect. However, we have seen reports of group pre-inspections at which a significant percentage of teams did not realize this and built slightly oversized robots, leading to significant rework.
Many teams do not have access to these pre-inspections, and our concern is that many of them will arrive at their events with slightly oversized robots, resulting in a lot of frustration and a great deal of painstaking rework. To mitigate that, R03 now allows minor protrusions in the length and width dimensions. (Take note: not the height dimension).
This decision was not made lightly. While it does make the rule more forgiving, many teams understood the rules as written initially, and designed their robots with that understanding. Some teams caught the implications of the rule as it had been written later in the build season and invested time and resources in redesigning and reworking their robots to comply. For those teams, please accept my apologies. However, I do believe this change is better for the community because it will result in a better experience for more teams.
See you at the competitions!
Regards, Mark Lawrence
Chairman, MN FIRST Regional Planning Committee