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Official Q&A: VRC 2022-2023: Spin Up

Usage Guidelines All Questions

1117: <R7e> Rope/String


GOTEM
3-Jun-2022

<R7e> allows for

An unlimited amount of rope / string, no thicker than 1/4” (6.35mm).

Q&A 1027 from Tipping Point ruled that something would generally be legal as rope/string if it was “being used as rope / string”. This was expanded in another Q&A to include metal wire up to 1/4” thick.

<R22> affirms that

Most modifications to non-electrical components are allowed. Physical modifications, such as bending or cutting, of legal metal structure or plastic components are permitted.

Seeing as metal wire up to 1/4“ thick is established as “legal metal structure”, <R22> allows for physical modification to it, such as bending or cutting.

Certain kinds of metal wire could be bent or coiled to form springs, which would provide functionality not natively available in the V5 system, and which would very likely not be considered “rope-like”.

I have the following questions

  1. What defines “being used as rope/string”?

  2. If legal rope/string made out of metal or plastic is physically modified to serve a different purpose, does it remain legal?

  3. If legal rope/string made out of a material other than metal or plastic is physically modified to serve a different purpose, does it remain legal?

  4. While unfortunately limited in practical applications, a single strand of cooked spaghetti would qualify as legal rope/string under <R7e>, but an uncooked spaghetti noodle (effectively a dowel rod) likely would not. At what point in the cooking process does the GDC suggest that spaghetti become VRC-legal?

  5. Would it be legal to braid several 1/4“ diameter strings to form a rope effectively thicker than 1/4“?

Thank you for your time.

Answered by committee

Q&A 1027 from Tipping Point ruled that something would generally be legal as rope/string if it was “being used as rope / string”. This was expanded in another Q&A to include metal wire up to 1/4” thick.

First, it is important to remember the following passage from the Game Manual:

Similarly, it can never be assumed that definitions, rules, or other materials from previous seasons apply to the current game. Q&A responses from previous seasons are not considered official rulings for the current game. Any relevant clarifications that are needed should always be re-asked in the current season’s Q&A.

With that in mind:

  1. What defines “being used as rope/string”?

  2. If legal rope/string made out of metal or plastic is physically modified to serve a different purpose, does it remain legal?

  3. If legal rope/string made out of a material other than metal or plastic is physically modified to serve a different purpose, does it remain legal?

  4. While unfortunately limited in practical applications, a single strand of cooked spaghetti would qualify as legal rope/string under <R7e>, but an uncooked spaghetti noodle (effectively a dowel rod) likely would not. At what point in the cooking process does the GDC suggest that spaghetti become VRC-legal?

  5. Would it be legal to braid several 1/4“ diameter strings to form a rope effectively thicker than 1/4“?

As always, we cannot provide blanket definitive answers to any of these hypothetical questions which rely on context of the material, application, Robot, mechanism design, etc. We would advise any Teams whose Robot designs rely upon answers to these questions to bear in mind rules G3 and rule R3-f:

f. All Inspection Rules are to be enforced within the discretion of the Head Referee within a given event. Robot legality at one event does not automatically imply legality at future events. Robots which rely on “edge-case” interpretations of subjective rules, such as whether a decoration is “non-functional” or not, should expect additional scrutiny during inspection.