Hello! I hope the season has been well for you all so far.
Speaking with a range of teams I wanted to seek clarification on rules SG3, SG2 as well as a clarification on Robot Inspection.
As per SG3:
Vertical expansion is limited and robots may expand vertically but never contact and/or break the plane of two levels of the ladder at a given time. Similarly, Horizontal expansion is limited to not being able to exceed an overall footprint of 24" x 18".
The note in SG2c specifically says that: > Horizontal Expansion is measured from the robots perspective, i.e., it does "rotate with the robots." Robots that tip over, or rotate while Climbing, are still restricted to expanding "from the one side" in the chosen direction that was measured during inspection.
Based on this wording I want to clarify a few specific cases provided no other rules are broken:
-
Is it legal for a robot that passes inspection to "flip itself over" as a part of an intentional strategy so that it can expand horizontally with no limit (as it will never break two planes of the ladder), whilst maintaining the 24"x18" footprint specified in SG2 & only expanding "horizontally" in the configuration defined during inspection? Would this be a legal strategy teams could employ to develop wallbots for defense in matches?
-
If point 1 is legal, instead of a robot flipping itself over, as the footprint is determined during Inspection, are teams able to start their robot "on it's side" so that the robot does not need to flip itself over? Specifically, are teams able to start their robot in a different orientation to how it was inspected?
-
If point 2 is illegal, would all robots be required to start with the "defined bottom" parallel to the ground? If this is the case, would point 1 still be legal?
-
If point 2 is legal and teams are able to start their robot in any orientation, how would on-field inspections impact the above ruling? Would the robot's orientation on the field become it's "new orientation"? Or could teams rotate their robots to the desired orientation for the inspection purposes than return it to being "on it's side"?
I would assume that the intent and leniency granted in the note attached to SG2 is to not punish teams who accidentally fall over when attempting to elevate, and just want to clarify the above cases in the event any teams try to exploit any potential loopholes within the current rules.
Thank you for the clarifications, and I wish you a pleasant season!