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Official Q&A: VEX IQ Robotics Competition 2024-2025: Rapid Relay

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2207: Modification and swapping of robot subsystems

S T
21-Oct-2024

Hello!! this question is intended to find a universal interpretation of how you are allowed to modify or swap subsystems at an event. Mainly due to th vagueness in some rule wording and they lack of Q/A clarigications on subsytem1/2. This aims to build on top of <R1> , <R3> and Q/A 2130, 2134, 2183

  1. when a team makes a legal modification to their robot, such as entirely switching out a subsystem 3 for skills vs teamwork. if they get fully inspected in both configurations at the start of comp. Q - would the team be okay to switch back and forth between both configurations at will (implied from R3) or do they need to get reinspected every time they change it (from R1) even if it's a config inspected at the start of comp

  2. what, if any, components of subsystem 1&2 may you modify or add/remove during a comp? (Q/A 2183 and 2134 says that wheel and gear changes are okay. what about things such shafts, motors, brain, sensors used for field navigation, half a chassis, the entire chassis frame getting rebuilt, a guide to align with the goal, etc.) Basically, what can you do to those systems and whats the limit. 2.1) also is the rule intending for partial modification to be legal but swapping out the ENTIRE system be okay? a 2.2) also, is swapping out a subsystem 1/2 for an identical replacement that was either built at home OR built at comp be legal?

  3. if a robot has a guide on the robot that interacts with the floor and the field elements at the floor level, Q- would the guide be considered part of subsystem 1?

R1   R3  
Answered by committee
24-Oct-2024
  1. would the team be okay to switch back and forth between both configurations at will (implied from R3) or do they need to get reinspected every time they change it (from R1) even if it's a config inspected at the start of comp

As described in clause B of <R3>, "All possible functional Robot configurations must be inspected before being used in competition. This especially pertains to modular or swappable mechanisms (per <R1>) and Match starting configurations/sizes (per <R4>)." There is no requirement that a Robot be reinspected each time a Robot is revised to match a pre-inspected configuration.

  1. what, if any, components of subsystem 1&2 may you modify or add/remove during a comp? 2.1) also is the rule intending for partial modification to be legal but swapping out the ENTIRE system be okay? 2.2) also, is swapping out a subsystem 1/2 for an identical replacement that was either built at home OR built at comp be legal?

As described in rule <R1>, "... if you are swapping out an entire subsystem 1 or 2, you have now created a second Robot and have Violated this rule." There is no rule against swapping out a component or portion of subsystems 1 or 2. We are unable to make a blanket ruling that will apply to all cases.

  1. if a robot has a guide on the robot that interacts with the floor and the field elements at the floor level, would the guide be considered part of subsystem 1?

It could be considered part of either subsystem 1 or subsystem 3, but if its primary purpose is alignment rather than navigating the playing field it would be considered part of subsystem 3 in most cases.