In autonomous would it be legal to expand your robot out of the 18,18,18 size limit manually? For example, if you wanted to make your intake system expand could you do it manually and put an axle through it to keep it up.
In autonomous would it be legal to expand your robot out of the 18,18,18 size limit manually? For example, if you wanted to make your intake system expand could you do it manually and put an axle through it to keep it up.
Let’s take a look at the applicable rule from the VEX Gateway Manual . I’ve bolded the portion which is specifically relevant to your question.
<SG5> During the Autonomous Period, Drivers and Coaches may handle their own Robot while the Robot is in contact with their own Alliance Starting Tile. During contact with the Robot, the Drivers or Coaches may not intentionally manipulate or modify the position of any Scoring Objects (aside from any which are being loaded into the Robot), either by direct hand contact or indirect contact via the Robot. Drivers or Coaches also may not change the configuration of the Robot other than in the act of fixing the Robot (i.e. it is okay to reposition the robot relative to the field, but it is not okay to manually lift up the Robot’s arm) .
The intent of this rule is to allow teams to fix Robots that are unable to move, to load Match Loads into the Robot, to reposition and/or reorient Robots, and to activate additional autonomous modes by interacting with the Robot via sensors or buttons.
The intent of this rule is not to allow teams to manipulate their Robot in such a way that they are controlling the Robot via human contact or creating motions that lead to scoring.
So based on rule <SG5>, it would not be legal to manually expand your robot.
With this what if you were to have sprockets hooked up to your intake motor(s) and that expanded it. From there could you remove the chain and put an axle through the top to hold it in place?
No, this is also not allowed. Let’s take a look at this rule again.
The intent of this rule is to allow teams to fix Robots that are unable to move, to load Match Loads into the Robot, to reposition and/or reorient Robots, and to activate additional autonomous modes by interacting with the Robot via sensors or buttons.
Modifying your robot to gain additional functionality is not allowed for under this rule. Thus what you have described is illegal.