Are parents allowed to work on the robot and will that have an effect on judging?

[Foster]

I want to apologize in advance for needing to ask these questions. I know that RECF and the GDC have striven to keep the rules small (build a robot, here is how you score), but sometimes it’s the reading of the rules and people trying to guess intent get crossed. There was a possible issue at a VEX State Championship where a team was ruled ineligible for judged awards because a parent was working on the robot.

This question got posted to the VEX official Q&A forum and was answered by Karthik, except for VEXIQ, he suggested I post here to get a specific VEXIQ answer. So I’ve stripped the VEX Metal and VEXU parts out and left just the VEXIQ parts. (But similar questions got asked about those programs, and the answer was yes, parents could work and program the robot.)

In the questions below “actively working on” means doing something like change a motor, adding or removing parts, etc. It does not mean something minor like “just tightening a screw” (Or in VEXIQ snapping a loose connection in place. It does not mean drive the robot. For code it means making a multiline change, not just downloading new firmware.

“adult” means a mentor, parent or guardian, or someone from another team. A side case is at a mixed VEXU and VEXIQ event, someone from a VEXU team comes over and helps. I chose the word adult since that covers 99% of the cases I’m interested in.

“at a competition” I mean competitions that are preludes to state or regional championships, state or regional championships that are preludes to Worlds or the World Championship. I understand that “off-season” events can and often do have local rules.

Here we go:

In VEXIQ are adults allowed to actively work on the robot at a competition?

In VEXIQ are adults allowed to actively work on the robot computer code at a competition?

Would any of the activities listed above (actively working on the robot and/or actively working on the robot code) cause a team to not be eligible for judged awards in VEXIQ at a competition?

Thanks!

Foster

[Karthik]

In VEXIQ are adults allowed to actively work on the robot at a competition?

In VEXIQ are adults allowed to actively work on the robot computer code at a competition?

This is covered in the definition of Student in the VEX IQ Challenge Highrise Game Appendix. I’ve bolded the pertinent text.

Student – Anyone enrolled in a school or is home-schooled up through and including Middle School grade levels. Students can also be appropriately aged members of a community/youth organization or just a neighborhood group of Students. Students are the only individuals who design, build, repair, and program the Robot, with minimal adult assistance. Adults may assist Students in urgent situations, however adults should never work on a Robot without Students on that Team being present and actively participating.

Would any of the activities listed above (actively working on the robot and/or actively working on the robot code) cause a team to not be eligible for judged awards in VEXIQ at a competition?

This covered in the VEX IQ Challenge Highrise Awards Appendix.

When making award decisions, judges will recognize those teams that have designed, built, and programmed their robot and completed their STEM research project, with minimal adult assistance.

Hopefully these two statements in conjunction will adequately answer your question. Please note, we are working to clarify these rules, and will have updated versions in the soon to be released 2015-16 VEX IQ Challenge rules.

[Foster]

Thanks Karthik for the quick response on this question! These statements are pretty clear, my problem was not looking at the appendix, just the game rules.