Answered: Question About Said Field Element

[Connor]

<SG6> Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements or the opposing
Mobile Goals. Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an
effort to latch onto said Field Element are prohibited. The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams
from both unintentionally damaging the field and/or from anchoring themselves to the field.

In response to this thread, I have a similar question to ask. In the pictures of the thread, it has a robot which puts metal around the two red mobile goals to prevent the separation of the mobile goals and its’ robot. Would it be legal to put metal on the perimeter like this image(uploaded) in order to prevent the separation of the robot and the field perimeter? (Note: The perimeter is made of wood, but it’s just for example). If this isn’t legal, what would you consider the distance should be for it to be considered legal as for the image of the link?

[VEX_GDC]

First, to be clear - the answer given in the linked Q&A thread is referring to the blue robot with the large mechanism encompassing both red Mobile Goals, not the red robot with a similar mechanism as you have shown here.

Rule SG6 reads as follows, with a portion bolded for emphasis:

<SG6> Robots may not intentionally grasp, grapple or attach to any Field Elements or the opposing Mobile Goals. Strategies with mechanisms that react against multiple sides of a Field Element in an effort to latch onto said Field Element are prohibited. The intent of this rule is to prevent Teams from both unintentionally damaging the field and/or from anchoring themselves to the field. Minor violations of this rule that do not affect the Match will result in a warning. Match Affecting offenses will result in a Disqualification. Teams that receive multiple warnings may also receive a Disqualification at the Head Referee’s discretion.

The mechanism depicted here is clearly serving the sole purpose of anchoring a robot to the field, and is thus prohibited by the verbiage of <SG6>.

If this isn’t legal, what would you consider the distance should be for it to be considered legal as for the image of the link?

It is impossible to issue a blanket ruling or expect referees to measure a mechanism’s distance from a Field Element. The key thing that referees should watch for is not a mechanism’s distance from a Field Element, but whether or not the interaction is serving the purpose of latching onto or anchoring the Robot to said Field Element. Please see this Q&A post for some additional detail.