RobotEvents.com
Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
Inspirando estudiantes, un robot a la vez.

The official VEX V5 Robotics Competition Question & Answer system has closed for this season. If your team is planning to attend the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship, you may submit game and event-related questions to the 2025 VEX Robotics World Championship Driver's Meeting Question Collection Form, which is available at this link: https://forms.gle/VpoRH5GmhktejJ8R8.

Official Q&A: VEX V5 Robotics Competition 2024-2025: High Stakes

Usage Guidelines All Questions

2490: Functional or Non-Functional

William Joyce
31-Jan-2025

<SC8>

Q&A 2248 states that non-functional elements, such as a license plate that is not backed by a functional structure, will not be considered in the context of SC8(4).

Q&A 2364 states that zip ties are functional elements that can be used to meet the criteria of SC8(4).

QUESTION: Is the head referee required to determine if a zip tie is, in fact, serving a function other than extending the robot's reach? (It seems counterintuitive that a required robot part like a license plate would not count as "contact" when an optional item like a zip tie would, especially if neither is serving any other function on the robot.)

QUESTION: Are the same criteria (functional/nonfunctional) used to determine if a part of the robot is "breaking the plane of the starting line" in the context of SC8(3) (and other rules regarding robot orientation vis-a-vis field boundaries)?

SC8  
Answered by committee
13-Feb-2025

QUESTION: Is the head referee required to determine if a zip tie is, in fact, serving a function other than extending the robot's reach?

The game manual classifies a zip tie is a functional component. No judgment call is required.

As described in rule <R9>, "Inspectors and Head Referees will have final say in what is considered “non-functional"" for components that aren't standard Robot parts.

QUESTION: Are the same criteria (functional/nonfunctional) used to determine if a part of the robot is "breaking the plane of the starting line" in the context of SC8(3) (and other rules regarding robot orientation vis-a-vis field boundaries)?

A non-functional decoration cannot help a Team achieve a game objective (e.g., completing an Autonomous Win Point task) but is a part of the Robot for the purposes of Robot sizing.

All non-functional decorations must fit within the Robot's starting and expanded size limits. If a non-functional decoration is contacting or breaking the plane of the Starting Line, that Robot has not completed that AWP task.