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Official Q&A: VRC 2019-2020: Tower Takeover

Usage Guidelines All Questions

405: Indirect Cube movement while Autonomous


41091A
2-Nov-2019

During the Autonomous period, if a red robot causes a cube from the vertical stack of four to fall while trying to get cubes from that stack and one or more of the cubes in that stack crosses the autonomous line and causes the other vertical blue alliance stack of four to fall is that a violation of any rule?

Additionally, if the other team is not running autonomous, is the answer the same?

The robot is not directly touching the cube that crosses the line-e.g. trying to get the bottom 2 cubes of the stack.

Answered by Game Design Committee

It is impossible to issue a blanket ruling based on a snapshot description of a hypothetical Match. In general, SG7 and SG2 would be the primary rules that a Head Referee would have to look at in this case:

<SG2> Stay on your side in Autonomous. During the Autonomous Period, Robots may not contact the foam tiles, Towers, or Cubes which are on the opposing Alliance’s side of the Autonomous Line.

Violations of this rule will result in the Autonomous Bonus being awarded to the opposing Alliance. Intentional, strategic, or egregious violations, such as intentional contact with an opposing Robot while completely across the Autonomous Line, will result in a Disqualification.

Note: Towers and Cubes which begin the Match in contact with the Autonomous Line are not considered to be on either side, and may be utilized by either Alliance during the Autonomous Period. If attempting to utilize these Towers or Cubes, Teams should be cognizant of the possibility that opponent Robots may attempt to do the same. <SG7>, <G10>, <G11>, and <G12> will be taken into account when these types of Robot interactions occur.

<SG7> Use Cubes to play the game. Cubes may not be used to accomplish actions that would be otherwise illegal if they were attempted by Robot mechanisms. Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Encroaching upon an opponent’s Protected Zone per <SG3>.

• Interfering with an opponent’s Autonomous Period per <SG2>.

Causing Cubes to interact with foam tiles, Towers, or Cubes on the opposing Alliance's side of the Autonomous Line would be considered a violation of SG2 via SG7. Per SG2, violations could range from the Autonomous Bonus being awarded to the opposing Alliance, to a Disqualification, depending on the context of the interaction.