[OCCRA]: [OCCRA]: Human player actions and unintentional possessions

[Aaron Yanich]

Under rule GR17, if a robot comes to possess the opposing alliance's ball by the intentional action of the opposing alliance, will it be held responsible for the possession of that ball?

Rule GR7 states that "Human players may not throw balls out of the playing area or into a goal." Does this apply to thrown balls that first contact an alliance robot before landing into a goal?

Rule GR7 also states that "HPs may not intentionally throw balls at: spectators, the opponents‟ HP, drivers, coaches, VEX areas, or robots." Does this prohibit human players from intentionally throwing balls into reflective/ball-guiding mechanisms on their alliance's robots?

-Aaron Yanich, Juggernauts (team 0001)

[Mike Martus]

To answer the above question:

1. Under rule GR17, if a robot comes to possess the opposing alliance's ball by the intentional action of the opposing alliance, will it be held responsible for the possession of that ball? NO as long as the robot gets rid of the opposing alliance ball as soon as possible.

2. Rule GR7 states that "Human players may not throw balls out of the playing area or into a goal." Does this apply to thrown balls that first contact an alliance robot before landing into a goal? The intention of the game is to have the robots score the balls. If a human player is responsible for the scoring of a ball by throwing it into a device and the device guides the ball into the goal then they are in violation of the rule. This is our position because we try to minimize the decisions of the referees based upon a split second act of a team. Also, the intent of all of our games is to create and display engineering excellence not human skill.

3. Rule GR7 also states that "HPs may not intentionally throw balls at: spectators, the opponents‟ HP, drivers, coaches, VEX areas, or robots." Does this prohibit human players from intentionally throwing balls into reflective/ball-guiding mechanisms on their alliance's robots? Same answer as above. No you cannot. The intent is to allow the Human player to load balls into a robot without being the energy that is scoring the ball.