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Official Q&A: VIQRC 2023-2024: Full Volume

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T10 - Does the Field Variance Tolerance Cover Incorrectly Assembled Field Elements


10452G
3-Dec-2023

<T10> states (in part):

Field Element tolerances may vary from nominal by up to ±1.0”, unless otherwise specified.

At a recent event we noticed part way through the finals matches that the goals on the competition fields were not assembeled correctly. The top horizontal beams were 10.5" above the field floor because the corner chassis connectors were placed in the highest pair of holes on the uprights, rather than the second-highest pair.

Should this sort of variance be considered a <T10> condition that teams should design around (meaning a robot would need to be designed to clear ~11.5" vertically for anything going over the top of the goal), or would it be a <T7> field fault?

Answered by committee
21-Dec-2023

Yes, this would be included in the <T10> tolerance. Since there are no flexible Field Elements, improper assembly is the most common source of such variances. Of course, whenever a Team finds that a field has been assembled incorrectly, they should bring it to the attention of the Head Referee and/or Event Partner as soon as possible.

With that being said, a Match Replay is always an option at the Head Referee / Event Partner's discretion; the list of situations provided in <T7> are intended to be representative examples, not an all-inclusive list. In the case of improper field assembly, they will usually take the following considerations into account when making this decision:

  • The severity of the error (e.g., on an Autonomous Coding Skills field, a Starting Peg in the incorrect location would be far more significant than a Starting Peg rotated in the wrong direction)
  • If any Teams claim that the error was Score Affecting
  • When the error was found (e.g., if the event has already run until Finals, then it is unlikely that the error impacted Teams directly enough to warrant concern)