Answered: Questions About Side Panel Legality

[Harrison]

First of all, sorry about the double posting, I submitted it to the wrong forum.

I know this has been answered in previous years, but I would like to ask about this for clarification.

in Accordance to R7 Sec D Pt 2

<R7> Robots are allowed the following additional “non-VEX” components:
[INDENT]d. Teams may add non-functional decorations provided that these do not affect the robot
performance in any significant way or affect the outcome of the match. These decorations
must be in the spirit of the competition. Inspectors will have final say in what is considered
“nonfunctional”.
[INDENT]ii. Any guards or decals must be backed by legal materials that provide the same
functionality. i.e. If your robot has a giant decal that prevents Scoring Objects from
falling out of the robot, the decal must be backed by VEX material that also prevents the
Scoring Objects from falling out.[/INDENT][/INDENT]

May a team use a item limited by size, for example, polycarbonate, to construct side panels that are over the “allowable size” provided that they break no other rules in the process?

Secondly, could these side panels be made out of materials such as metal or wood, providing that they are backed by vex legal material, and the material doesn’t aid in any functional way(So we could use more than 12x24)? I have seen some teams using this method in the past, and it looked cool. I was just wondering how legal it was.

Thanks Karthik!

[Karthik]

May a team use a item limited by size, for example, polycarbonate, to construct side panels that are over the “allowable size” provided that they break no other rules in the process?

Yes, this would be legal. As long as the panels are deemed to be non functional decorations, they would not count towards the polycarbonate limit.

Secondly, could these side panels be made out of materials such as metal or wood, providing that they are backed by vex legal material, and the material doesn’t aid in any functional way(So we could use more than 12x24)? I have seen some teams using this method in the past, and it looked cool. I was just wondering how legal it was.

Yes, this would be legal. I now look forward to teams using wood paneling on their robot as a non functional decoration.

[Harrison]

Yes, this would be legal. As long as the panels are deemed to be non functional decorations, they would not count towards the polycarbonate limit.

Yes, this would be legal. I now look forward to teams using wood paneling on their robot as a non functional decoration.

Thanks Karthik,

You’ll be excited when you see 523T’s side-panels!

[Karthik]

Thanks Karthik,

You’ll be excited when you see 523T’s side-panels!

You’re welcome! I’m looking forward to it!