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1681: Robots contacting Blocks in a Goal transitively


2014A
8-Oct-2023

In some ways, this question is an extension of matters raised by:

If a Match ends with a Robot still partially inside a Goal, there are some unclear matters.

Rule <SC3> is clear:

  1. A Block is considered Scored in a Goal if...The Block is not contacting any Robots.

Thus, any Block contacting the Robot does not get counted. However:

  1. What about Blocks contacting the Robot transitively? For example, Block A touching the Floor, Block B on top of A, the Robot touching only Block A. Since Block A is not considered Scored, we're interpreting this as Block B also not Scored, since the transitivity gets "broken" by an "invalid" Block. However, if Block A and C are both touching the Floor, and Block B is touching both A and C, then...yes? Shouldn't C and B are both be Scored, despite the Robot touching A and transitively/indirectly touching C and B? Or does the referee have to carefully determine which Blocks are in the transitive "chain" and which ones are not? And then calculate all Bonuses as if the chain of Blocks were gone?

  2. What about Height bonuses? Again, if a Robot is touching (even slightly and immaterially) a Block, that Block and any blocks transitively touching it (this part is not 100% clear?) are also treated as if they were not in the Goal, right? Thus Height is calculated soley based on Blocks that are in no way touching or transitively/indirectly touching the Robot? This seems most fair since otherwise teams may exploit this to ensure a Height bonus by using the Robot to help raise the Blocks. This also makes Score calculation tricky for Height bonus: would you have achieved Height 3 if the robot were not present in the Goal?

  3. What about Uniform bonuses? The touched Block clearly should be excluded from any Scoring. What about transitively touching Blocks? This has an interesting implication...strategy-wise. Suppose a team accidentally drops a purple Block into a Goal with all green Blocks. Clock says 2 seconds. You can opt to partially park (+5) or, even better,....drive to the non-Uniform Goal and reach in to touch the one purple Block. Per <SC3>, the Driver has strategically invalidated the purple Block, thus earning a Uniform bonus for that Goal (+10). If we also add transitively touching Blocks as invalidated, then the Robot merely needs to touch a green block that transitively touches the purple Block, potentially risking invalidating the entire set of scored Blocks - although this scenario seems improbable in the wild.

Thanks for your consideration.

Answered by committee
25-Oct-2023

If a Match ends with a Robot contacting a Block which would otherwise be considered Scored, then that Block is considered not Scored, per <SC3>. That is the only Block which is considered not Scored; there is no mention of transitive contact in this evaluation.

One thing that may help scorekeepers and Head Referees is to physically remove any Blocks from the Goal that are being contacted (assuming that this can be done without disturbing other Scored Blocks). This will clearly indicate to all Teams and spectators the final state of the Goal.

With that visual in mind...

  1. What about Blocks contacting the Robot transitively?

Transitive contact is irrelevant. If they are not contacting the Robot, then they are still considered Scored.

  1. What about Height bonuses?

The Height bonus should be evaluated once any Blocks that were being contacted by the Robot are removed.

  1. What about Uniform bonuses? The touched Block clearly should be excluded from any Scoring.

Correct.

Suppose a team accidentally drops a purple Block into a Goal with all green Blocks. Clock says 2 seconds. You can opt to partially park (+5) or, even better,....drive to the non-Uniform Goal and reach in to touch the one purple Block. Per <SC3>, the Driver has strategically invalidated the purple Block, thus earning a Uniform bonus for that Goal (+10).

Correct.