Answered: Yet a third SG9 question

[sazrocks]

SG9 in part states:

Robots may not Possess more than one (1) Cone at a time.

Note: An intent of this rule is to prevent Robots from hoarding Cones by pushing them. The intent is not to punish Robots for pushing Cones that are in their way. Robots that intentionally plow multiple Cones to a specific location of the field, even with a flat/convex portion of their Robot, would be in violation of this rule. Robots are allowed to drive through Cones that are in their way. Teams are not allowed to use this to employ Cone hoarding strategies.

What is the recommended method for referees to determine whether a Robot is intentionally pushing cones to a specific location on the field?
Similarly, at what point is the distinction drawn between plowing cones out of the way and pushing them to a specific location?
For example, would it be legal to drive across the field with the intention of scoring, but multiple cones are pushed all the way across the field with the robot?
Must robots “get rid” of cones within a timely manner or are they allowed to plow them for as long as necessary in order to drive to their target?

[VEX_GDC]

It is at the discretion of the Head Referee to determine whether hoarding is occurring or not. To do so, they will take into account things like the context of the full match, whether or not the action in question was Match Affecting, if the team in question had been warned about this situation previously, etc. It is impossible to provide any sort of a blanket ruling based on a snapshot of a single action within a match.

Regarding recommended methods, this topic will be one of the subjects of the referee training videos later this year, so keep an eye out for those when the time draws closer.