Answered: Programming Skills Question

Ryan205 · March 2, 2015, 9:02am

I need some clarification of some programming challenge rules, so for the programming challenge I was wondering if it is allowed to touch the robot during the programming challenge. It would also help if someone could also tell me the specifications of the rule(Ex. You can only touch robot when… or you cannot touch robot when…). Thanks

Karthik · March 11, 2015, 10:37am

We ask you to please thoroughly read the VEX Skyrise Game Manual and to please review the Q&A Usage Guidelines before posting in this forum. Specifically, please quote the rule or definition that your question is referring to. The answers to your question can all be found in Appendix C - The Programming Skills Challenge

Appendix C:

Student Drive Team Members may handle their own Robot while the Robot is in contact with their own Alliance Starting Tile (i.e. the tile the Robot started the match on), within the following restrictions.
i. Student Drive Team Members may only interact with a Robot if it is touching their own Alliance Starting Tile and no part of the Robot is touching a gray foam tile, except the interaction allowed in
ii. If any part of a Robot is touching a grey foam tile, the only interaction that will be allowed is to bring the Robot fully into the legal Alliance Starting Tile, into a legal position as per
iii. After any legal interaction with the robot by Student Drive Team Members, and prior to the robot attempting to score or interact with Scoring Objects, the robot must be in a position such that it is touching the legal Alliance Starting Tile and no part of the Robot is touching a gray foam tile; a legal position as per . i.e. Before the Robot leaves the Alliance Starting Tile, Student Drive Team Members may not be touching the robot. If Student Drive Team Members touch the Robot again, it must be touching a legal Alliance Starting Tile and it must immediately be brought fully back onto the tile. Note: Robots that hang over the edge of the Alliance Starting Tile, but do not touch any gray foam tiles, are considered to be in legal positions for interaction as per
iv. Student Drive Team Members may only interact with a Robot if they are in their Alliance Station or in the general vicinity of the Alliance Robot Interaction Spot that corresponds to the Alliance Starting Tile the Robot is on.
v. Student Drive Team Members may only interact with their Robot up to two (2) times in any given Programming Skills Match. An interaction begins when the Robot is first legally handled by a Student Drive Team Member and ends once the Robot leaves the Alliance Starting Tile following the initial handling.

During contact with the Robot, the Student Drive Team Members may not intentionally manipulate or modify the position of any Scoring Objects relative to the Robot’s overall system, either by direct hand contact or indirect contact via the Robot. (i.e. it is acceptable to change the orientation of a Robot that includes Scoring Objects in it as long as the position of the elements relative to the Robot is not changed).

Student Drive Team Members also may not change the configuration of 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 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.

Violations of this rule will result in a warning for minor offenses which do not affect the final score of the Programming Skills Challenge Match. Egregious (match affecting) offenses will result in a score of zero (0). Teams who receive multiple warnings may also receive a score of zero (0) at the head referee’s discretion.