<SC6> ***At league this past week we had a robot that would shoot the ball into the goal and it would miss occasionally hitting the target and go back into their loader. They would then use their flywheel to push the ball in. The robot touched the ball as it pushed it the entire way through goal. The robot was contacting the ball through its journey into the goal.
**I took this to mean this is score impacting because according to SC3 below-- a scored goal is once a ball is no longer in contact with a robot and has fully passed through the target. I also conferred with our REC rep who was at league to make sure my interpretation was correct and he agreed with me. ***
SC3--An Alliance Scores a Goal once a Ball is no longer in contact with a Robot and has fully passed through a Target (i.e., from the “outside" of the Goal Wall structure into the “inside” of the Goal Wall).----
**** However- as I read on it says an addendum under SC4 of---don't over think this rule---- and there is no restriction on what type of robot action, mechanism, strategy or technique is used to score balls or clear switches. Which I think leaves some gray area as to is pushing considered a technique or strategy??? (See reference to SC4 below) **** We have some new teams who designed a Clawbot for this and I am afraid this may become a bigger issue at our league as they want to push the ball into the goal and drop it too. ** So clarification on if the robot is pushing a ball through the target/goal with a shooter, arm, flywheel, or another mechanism from their robot and the robot is still contacting the ball as it is going through goals is this illegal????
I believe what is trying to be said above in SC3 is that students are to engineer or program a solution that would make it so the ball is to not be touching both robot an goal to be considered scored, but the over thinking rule and part of SC4 leaves some gray area and the rule open to some debate on if this is strategy or action. Thanks**
<SC4> A Switch is Cleared once it has been struck by a Ball and is no longer parallel with the front face of the Goal Wall. Robots may not Clear Switches by contacting them directly (i.e., without it being part of the process of scoring a Ball through that Target).
Please don’t over-think this rule.
Sometimes a Switch gets Cleared without scoring a Ball through the Target, or a Ball is Scored through a Target but the Switch is not Cleared. That's okay. Switches must be Cleared as part of normal gameplay, and by Balls, not Robots or humans. Beyond that, there are no restrictions on what type of Robot action, mechanism, strategy, or technique is used to Score Balls and Clear Switches.
