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Official Q&A: VRC 2022-2023: Spin Up

Usage Guidelines All Questions

G16 - Grappling onto Field Elements


Jess Zarchi (Event Partner)
14-Sep-2022

Hello,

Field Element:

All elements that make up the field, including the foam field tiles, field perimeter, white tape, High Goals, Nets, Rollers, Barriers, and all supporting structures and accessories (such as Alliance Station posts, field monitors, etc.).

<G16>:

Don’t clamp your Robot to the field. Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements. Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an effort to latch or clamp onto said Field Element are prohibited. The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams from damaging the field and / or from anchoring themselves to the field.

In the first image shown below, the roller is red, the robot is green, and the field perimeter is black. The robot is reacting against the foam field tiles, 2 faces of the field perimeter, and the roller in an attempt to grasp the roller with more force. The rule states "Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an effort to latch or clamp onto said Field Element are prohibited." The robot is reacting against multiple sides of the field perimeter, but it is making an effort to clamp onto the roller, not the field perimeter. It is only reacting against one side of the roller. Is this a violation of G16?

In the second image shown below, the robot is reacting against multiple points on the roller (circles don't have sides) in an effort to clamp onto the roller. However, the robot is clearly not anchored to the field. A common-sense interpretation of the rule is that reacting against multiple points on the roller, as long as those points do not wrap more than halfway around the roller, is not a violation of G16. Is this correct?

Thank you for your time!

img img

Answered by committee

It is impossible to provide a blanket answer that would encompasses all possible hypothetical mechanisms / scenarios that could be described by the drawings provided.

The operative line in G16 that Head Referees should use when determining a specific mechanism's legality at an event is the following:

The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams from damaging the field and / or from anchoring themselves to the field.

As noted in your description, the intent of these hypothetical mechanisms would be "to grasp the roller with more force", which is already heading in the direction of a possible G16 violation.

Teams should also be cognizant of potential S1 violations in these scenarios, due to the increased risk of field damage from such a mechanism:

<S1> Be safe out there. If at any time the Robot operation or Team actions are deemed unsafe or have damaged a Field Element or Disc, the offending Team may receive a Disablement and / or Disqualification at the discretion of the Head Referee. The Robot will require re-inspection as described in rule <R3e> before it may take the field again.