Background: As recently declared in https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2021-2022/QA/818 it was ruled that “All supporting structures, including the red/blue PVC pipes, black plastic parts, screws/nuts/etc, are intended to be considered part of the Platform for all scoring and G/SG rules.” This allowed for the possibility of a robot to lift themselves off the ground using the top of the platform and resting against the black supporting structure in order to become elevated.
Question: With <G16> “Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements. Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an effort to latch or clamp onto said Field Element are prohibited. The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams from both unintentionally damaging the field and/or from anchoring themselves to the field”.
However, we do not feel as if this would violate <G16> because the robot will only be acting against one side of the platform (see diagram and explanation below), and would meet the definition of Elevated:
Elevated - A Robot and / or Mobile Goal state. A Robot or Mobile Goal is considered Elevated if all of the following criteria are met at the end of a Match:
- The Robot or Mobile Goal is contacting their Alliance Platform.
- The Platform meets the definition of Balanced.
- The Robot or Mobile Goal is not contacting any other Field Element, such as the foam field tiles or the field perimeter.
Hypothetically, a robot in this position would look like this:
In the 2020-2021 game change up, https://www.robotevents.com/VRC/2020-2021/QA/642 ruled that a method for determining whether a <G16> violation occurred was to ask “When it is pulled in random directions, does the Robot "get stuck" on the field element?” With a mechanism that pulled the robot upwards off of the foam tiles, the robot could be pushed in either horizontal direction and be lifted upwards completely off of the platform by human interaction, the only direction that it cannot be pulled is outwards because of the rim on the platform, however this would be the same case for a robot that is on top of the platform. It could be moved horizontally, lifted upwards, but not pulled outwards. The key aspect of <G16> is intended to prevent the damage of field elements.
Transitive Contact Consideration The only time a robot would be attempting to perform this interaction with the platform would be during the last 30 seconds of a match, which prohibits robot interactions that come into contact with any robot touching the platform due to transitive contact. There would be no opposing robot interaction that could potentially damage the field element.
Does the <G16> rule prevent this strategy?
Thank you for your further clarification.