Robotics Education & Competition Foundation
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Zero-Score Autonomous Skills and it's impact on excellence eligibility


Spencer Vaughan (Event Partner)
31-Aug-2023

Hello!

To be eligible for the excellence award this season, teams must place in the top 30% of Autonomous Coding Challenge rankings at the conclusion of Robot Skills Challenges.

Be ranked in the top 30% of Autonomous Coding Challenge rankings at the conclusion of the Robot Skills Challenges

My question is related to whether or not teams posting zero-score autonomous runs would rank higher than teams who have not competed in Autonomous skills.

For instance in the following scenario:

  • There is a 30 team event with one excellence award offered
  • Only 3 teams have participated in the Autonomous Skills component of Robot Skills
  • Of these 3 teams, 2 have posted a zero-score, the other 27 robots at the event have not competed in skills.

From this, how would you interpret the following situations:

  • Would the 2 teams mentioned above who have posted a zero-score and are on the skills leaderboard be placed in the Top 30% of teams as they have attempted an autonomous skills run.
  • If nobody participates in autonomous skills, but skills is offered at an event, would it be omitted from excellence eligibility, or would nobody be eligible to win excellence at that event.
  • If only 1 team runs auton skills at an event and they post a zero-score, would they than be the only team eligible to win the Excellence Award (provided they meet all other criteria)
  • If every robot posts a zero-score run, would they still be eligible for excellence.
  • If one of the 27 robots that did not post a score is in the random electronics rankings top 30%?
  • If zero-score is not eligible as they have the same score as teams who do not run skills, would a zero-score run with an early stop time place a team within eligibility?

Thank you for your time

Answered by Competition Judging Committee
12-Sep-2023

The September update to the Guide to Judging has clarified that a team must have both an overall Robot Skills and Autonomous Coding Skills score above zero to be eligible for the Excellence Award.

As with any other award, if no teams at an event meet the criteria for the Excellence Award, then it should not be given out at an event.