Answered: Tethered Robots and <SG9>

Hey Karthik,

After watching the ref training videos and following the forums closely, I noticed that there has been mention of tethered robots and entanglement, but no mention of <SG9> and the protected zone.

So, say that a team built a robot with one part for building the skyrise and a second tethered sub-robot for the rest of the field. It would be nearly impossible for the opponents to avoid contact with the tethered robot.

How should <SG9> be handled in a situation like this?

Would the tethered robot lose its <SG9>protection since it is touching other tiles outside of the protected zone?

Is the ruling affected by whether or not the sub-robot attempts to score cubes on posts outside of the protected zone?

Thanks, Karthik!

Yes, <SG9d> handles this situation.

Since the tethered robot would be contacting other field tiles, the protection would be lost.

Just to clarify a little further, only <SG9d> would be void? In other words <SG9a,b,c,f> would still hold up.

The purpose of <SG9> is to make it so “Robots may not interfere with an opposing Alliance’s Building of Skyrise Sections in any way.”

My interpretation is that the opponent would be allowed to touch the tethered robot, but it would still be illegal for them to directly and intentionally interfere with the main robot building the skyrise via actions outlined in <SG9a,b,c,f> . Is that interpretation correct?

Thank you for knocking out these Q and As so quickly, greatly appreciated!

Your interpretation is precisely correct.