Answered: Cone stuck in the robot = possessing?

[biglesliep]

We’ve seen several times in our 2 tournaments so far this year an instance where a cone gets stuck inadvertently in the robot, for example on the chassis, under the lift mechanism. The cone will be stuck there for the rest of the match because the robot has no way to grab it and can’t “bang it out” by, say, driving jerkily forward & back.

QUESTION: Does the stuck cone count as “possessing”? In other words, is that unfortunate robot now a REALLY unfortunate robot, because they are now barred from picking up any cones for the rest of the match, because doing so would equal possession of 2 cones?

(Our thought is yes, it would count as 2 cones, but we have seen some instances where the stuck cone is not counted in the possession evaluation.)

Thank you in advance for the clarification!

[VEX_GDC]

Does the stuck cone count as “possessing”? In other words, is that unfortunate robot now a REALLY unfortunate robot, because they are now barred from picking up any cones for the rest of the match, because doing so would equal possession of 2 cones?

Yes, this interpretation is correct. Any Cone that meets the definition of Possession is considered Possessed. There is no exception for Cones that are being “unintentionally” or “inadvertently” Possessed. Teams are advised to keep this possibility in mind when designing their robots.