rule G57

Competition Rules/Strategy
1

Hello my team and i have been re-reading the rules like we always do the week before we ship and we came across rule G57

“During the TELEOPERATED PERIOD, FEEDERS may enter LOGO PIECES onto the FIELD by using the FEEDING SLOTS or by throwing the LOGO PIECE over the top of the FEEDER STATION wall. LOGO PIECES may not be thrown around the side of the FEEDER STATION wall. Violation: PENALTY”

now are plan was to have our robot drive up to the wall and our human player hand the logo piece right over the wall to the robot now it dose not say that is illegal but dosnt say its legal any ideas please help

2

Sounds like your plan is not one of the two ways that you are allowed to get game pieces onto the field.

You can ask Q&A for a more definitive answer.

3

Unless I’m missing something, it doesn’t say how FAR you have to throw the game pieces over the wall.

Jason

4

I’d guess that is legal as long as the robot doesn’t cross the plane… While feeding the tubes over the wall isn’t explicitly stated, I imagine it’d be allowable. Ask Q&A to get it verified.

5

Beware <G31>:

<G31> ROBOTS, HOSTBOTS, nor MINIBOTS may not touch anything outside the FIELD boundary. Violation: Disablement

If your ROBOT is reaching over the ALLIANCE STATION wall to get a GAME PIECE, that piece is outside the FIELD. But if your ROBOT is just extending up near the wall, and the FEEDER passes the GAME PIECE over the wall to it, I don’t see a violation.

Ask Q&A to be sure. Something general like, “Can a ROBOT and a FEEDER both be in contact with a GAME PIECE at the same time?”

6

We tried to pass it over the wall in 2007. It required a great deal of concentraton on the part of the human player. Referees watched very closely to see if the human player or robot broke the plane of the field barrier. It was our rookie year and I know we had at least 1 penalty that cost our team a match. If your team ends up prone to penalties because of this maneuver other teams may shy away from picking you when it comes to the elimination draft.

On the other hand we had several matches where the strategy worked very well. It can be done.

7

The way our arm is designed our robot can not breack the plane of the playing field so all our bot will need to do is drive into the wall and we’ll be in position

8

I’m curious. How did you determined that it is better to reach up 6 1/2 feet to accept a tube from the HP over the wall, rather than reaching up 4 feet to accept a tube from the HP through the feedslot?

9

because than the tube is already up by the top rack, and you do not have to lift the arm as far, i am thinking. am i right 1203?

10

actually it was just the way we designed our arm that it would work easier that way and our arm works so nice

11

Consider this rule:

<G36> GAME PIECES may not be intentionally placed out of bounds. Violation: PENALTY and YELLOW CARD

The process of passing a game piece over the wall where possession is taken to the robot puts the game piece intentionally out of bounds while being held by the robot. I doubt if such an action would be allowed since the human would have to hold the piece while at the same time the robot would take hold of it. The human can’t reach over the wall, nor can the robot reach over the wall. That means the game piece must be held across the boundary while being grasped by the robot, at which point the robot has intentionally placed the game piece out of bounds.

But I’m not the Game Design Committee, so ask them.

12

Our team had the same question. For us, it would be much quicker and easier to feed over the top with our arm design. Although we have tried to ask the Q&A about it, they will not give us an answer. The best reply we received about the ruling was to see update 3. Although, I find nothing in rule update three about passing the tubes over the wall during tele-operated period. As for placing the tubes out of bounds, it is not any different than feeding the tubes through the slot. So, I can not imagine that would be a problem. I really wish the Q&A would just give us an answer to this question. Currently we are just planning on doing it in the practice rounds and see if the referee’s call a penalty. If anyone gets an official answer though, I would like to know.

13

Our team successfully passed the tube over top of the wall at SBPLI regional. The refs had no issue with it and I do not remember what regional it happened at but another team did the same.

14

Palmetto regional and Florida regional specifically said that was not allowed on the first day driver meeting.

15

Our team did ask the GDC and all they did was reply by reposting the rule. That is not actually clarification so the refs could interpret it anyway they want. If someone is asking a question obviously the rule is unclear, just repeating it does nothing to clarify it. Basic technical writing would teach that if the reader asks a question its not clear write it again.