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Official Q&A: VRC 2023-2024: Over Under

Usage Guidelines All Questions

Pushing triballs causes net to lift slightly


Charles Jeffries (Event Partner)
5-Mar-2024

T10a states:

Field Element tolerances may vary from nominal by up to ±1.0”

In the event that a goal is fairly full of triballs, and an opponent starts to legally push the triballs out of the goal, the net may incidentally raise and some triballs may escape the goal by going over the bar instead of under. This is quite common when Teams attempt to de-score triballs from an opponent's goal that is full.

Please see this example video demonstrating a scenario in which this can occur: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDuILsMaNoM

It seems to me that this would be considered "normal gameplay" as the intention isn't to lift the net but the net lifting is only a secondary consequence of simply trying to push a large quantity of triballs at once.

Therefore, is it correct to say that a robot that indirectly causes the net to lift slightly incidentally while pushing triballs is not violating T10 or any other rule?

Thank you.

Answered by committee
7-Mar-2024

Therefore, is it correct to say that a robot that indirectly causes the net to lift slightly incidentally while pushing triballs is not violating T10 or any other rule?

Thank you for your very clear video example. Provided no other rules are violated in the process, a Robot that indirectly causes the net to lift slightly while pushing Triballs into or out of the lower portion of a Goal is not violating rule <T10>; additionally, the Note following rule <SG5> will generally not apply, and this action is unlikely to be an <SG5> Violation if the Robot is not entangled with the net or directly/intentionally lifting or raising the net structure.