Hi VEX Q&A,
Recently we had a match at CSUN and an interesting technique was used for the preload of the colored donuts.
Teams would have the donuts attached to their robot and have them centered around one of the 30’’ goal posts surrounding the ring (touching the robot but not the goal post). When the match would start, the robot would drive away and the donuts would remain giving that team a nice boost.
My question regards how to preload properly in this regard for the college round up competition.
The college rules say:
7. Each team starts with six (6) tubes in autonomous mode. These tubes can be distributed among
the team’s robots in any manner. (i.e. one robot can start with all six tubes if desired
The general rules say:
<SG2> Prior to the start of each match, each team will have one (1) tube available to preload into their
robot. A tube is considered to be legally preloaded if it is touching the robot and not touching any field
element or scoring object
Is this to be taken to mean that in the college competition, you may preload the tubes in the fashion I describe so long as a part of the robot (defined as : Robot – Anything (which has passed inspection) a team places on the field prior to the start of a match. ) is touching all 6 tubes?
For example: a correct placement of the tubes would be to have a zip tie (or rubber band , or piece of metal, whatever) touching each of the tubes preloaded around the 30’’ goal post before the start of a match.
An incorrect placement of the tubes would be to have the tubes stacked one above the other with only the bottom tube being in contact with the robot.
The robot would, in all cases, be inside the 18x18x18 box including all pieces touching the donuts.