Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
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Official Q&A: VRC 2023-2024: Over Under

Usage Guidelines All Questions

1936: Does contacting the opponent's side of the Long Barrier warrant automatically losing autonomous?


228A
6-Feb-2024

<SC7><SG10>

Under the game-specific definition of Neutral Zone, the neutral zone is said to be only the gray foam tiles, not the three-dimensional volume. Under the game-specific definition of Offensive Zone, the Long Barrier is not considered to be in either offensize zone. Rule SG10 does not expressely prohibit robots from contacting the long barrier during autonomos, instead relying on the previous two definitions. As a result of this rule, our team interpreted the long barrier as being "fair game" to contact during the autonomous period.

However, at our most recent competition on February 3rd, one of the wings on our robot contacted the opponent's side of the long barrier (not the foam tiles) and automatically lost autonomous as a result. The head referee at the event said that this was a violation of the zone rules that applied during autonomous. Which interpretation of these rules is correct?

Answered by committee
1-Mar-2024

There are no rules against Robots contacting the Long Barrier during the Autonomous Period of the Match, therefore it is legal. Teams should, however, ensure that they abide by all constraints of rule <SG9> and be mindful of the possibility of interactions with other Robots as described in rule <SG10> while engaging with the Neutral Zone.