Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
Inspiring students, one robot at a time.

This Q&A is now read-only

The Official Q and A is now closed. If you want to submit a question for the Worlds Drivers Meeting, please click here. The deadline for question submission is Friday, March 24.

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

Usage Guidelines All Questions

Using a wedge to prevent a robot from moving


90121A
1-Jan-2023

In the following video ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSprkN2Zd2k]) a team uses a wedge on on the front of their robot to lift its wheels off the ground to prevent it from moving. We believe this is a violation of <G15> and of the trapping defintion.

Trapping - A Robot status. A Robot is Trapping if it has restricted an opposing Robot into a small, confined area of the field, approximately the size of one foam field tile or less, and has not provided an avenue for escape. Trapping can be direct (e.g., pinning an opponent to a field perimeter wall) or indirect (e.g., preventing a Robot from escaping from a corner of the field).

Since the lifted robot is not able to move and thus restricted to a small, confined area of the field, we believe this is within the defintion of trapping. In that match it was allowed and the trapping team won the match.

Can we get a ruling on this so if it happens again there is a FAQ ruling on it?

Answered by committee

Thank you for your question. The interaction shown in the Match video you included should be considered Trapping, and would be subject to the limitations on Trapping described in rule <G15>.