Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
Inspiring students, one robot at a time.
This Q&A is now read-only

Official Q&A: VIQC 2019-2020: Squared Away

Usage Guidelines All Questions

473: Robot Changes After Check-In


40693G
2-Jan-2020

My team wants to do an Omni-Drive for Driver Challenge. However, omni wheels have given us issue come Autonomous Challenge.

Can they check-in with an Omni-Drive, and then when they go to Autonomous they swap out the drive omni-wheels for rubber wheels and completely take out the strafe omni-wheel in the center of the bot? (Gotta take the strafe wheel out because omni wheels are larger diameter than rubber wheels)

Nothing else on the bot changes.

Is this an acceptable modification post check-in?

This may become an issue at our state qualifier, so I would like an official ruling on this.

Thanks for the help!!!

Answered by Game Design Committee

Rule R2 is quoted below for reference, with some portions bolded for emphasis.

<R2> One Robot per Team. Only one (1) Robot will be allowed to participate per Team in the VEX IQ Challenge. Though it is expected that Teams will make changes to their Robot at the event, a Team is limited to only one (1) Robot, and a given Robot may only be used by (1) Team. The VEX IQ system is intended to be a mobile robotics design platform. As such, a VEX IQ Challenge Robot, for the purposes of the VEX IQ Challenge, has the following subsystems:

Subsystem 1: Mobile robotic base including wheels, tracks, or any other mechanism that allows the Robot to navigate the majority of the flat playing Field surface. For a stationary Robot, the robotic base without wheels would be considered Subsystem 1.

Subsystem 2: Power and control system that includes a VEX IQ legal battery, a VEX IQ control system, and associated Smart Motors for the mobile robotic base.

Subsystem 3: Additional mechanisms (and associated Smart Motors) that allow manipulation of Game Objects or navigation of Field obstacles.

Given the above definitions, a minimum Robot for use in any VEX IQ Challenge event (including Robot Skills Challenges) must consist of subsystem 1 and 2 above. Thus, if you are swapping out an entire subsystem of either item 1 or 2, you have now created a second Robot and are no longer legal.

Because you are swapping all wheels for a functionally different drive system, this would be considered a complete swap of Subsystem 1, and would therefore not be legal.