Hello,
Our team’s state competition is next week. They are in the process of modifying their robot in order to score more points. As a team, they had a question regarding rule R2. Our team fears that the addition they will make to their robot will dramatically affect subsystem 3 of their robot during an autonomous run.
Is it legal for the teams to add or take off parts during a competition? More specifically, are they allowed to take parts off of subsystem 3 throughout the skills competition? We understand that subsystems 1 and 2 cannot be altered. If they are, then it would be considered a second robot and that would not be legal.
If they are allowed to remove and add parts, would they have to be reinspected every time they take off and add on the part?
Per R1a (quoted in that post), “If significant changes are made to a Robot, it must be re-inspected before it will be allowed to participate in a Match”.
We cannot provide an absolute ruling on what constitutes a “significant change”; this determination will lie with the head referee and inspector at a given event. Generally, this would mean a change that adds, removes, or modifies a significant portion of the robot’s functionality. Changing a 1x1 pin to a 0x2 pin would not be major; adding a different ring lifting mechanism would be.
If you already expect to be adding/removing a specific mechanism throughout the competition, we would recommend having the robot inspected in all possible configurations.