I have read the game manual and thoroughly searched it for a rule that makes leaving an aligning tool for the robot during a programming skills match illegal. Here is a video of what I mean. I want to know if someone else can find something that I missed, or if it is a legal thing to do.
R7> VEX IQ product line. Robots may be built ONLY from Official Robot Components from the VEX IQ
product line, unless otherwise specifically noted within these rules.
So technically if you making your aligning tool out of vex parts it doesn’t violate any rules but I don’t see why you would do it.
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I think even if the alignment tool were made from VIQC-legal parts, leaving it on the field during the run would be a violation of G12:
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I saw that rule (G12), but since it was never connected to the robot in the first place, would that count as detaching a part?
Yes it is made out of VEX parts.
Well if you have to touch it at the beginning doesn’t it count as connected anyway?
Plus, I’m pretty darn sure they can’t start separated.
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Anything you are leaving on the field once the match starts has to have met the definition of Robot.
So as @holbrook says, you couldn’t intentionally detatch it under G12.
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OK, thank you to everyone.
If you took the aligning tool out before the start of the match, that is legal, but are you allowed to put it back in and take it out for each robot reset? Or does that count as leaving mechanisms behind?
For an official clarification you’d need to go to the Q&A but to my mind, you can use it to align provided it is removed before the program is run and the timer starts. Once it is started, you would not be able to return it to the field for robot resets.
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We saw this in competitions several times and was never questioned by judges. Nothing in the rules prohibits it, so I would say it is legal. An official Q&A answer would become binding, but in the absence of that, I would say this is fine.
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I’d like to go back to G12 though, keep your robot together, which is a rule prohibiting it.
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Oh yes you are absolutely right I don’t know how I missed that thank you.
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It isn’t part of the robot. It doesn’t get inspected. It doesn’t have to fit within the starting dimensions. I believe this was addressed in the Squared Away Q&A (which is now deleted) and it was ruled to be legal.
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This was also discussed last season in this thread.
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So you’re saying in my next match, I can toss 1,000 loose screws on the field to make driving harder for my opponents, it’s not part of my robot, therefore legal.
Between G3 and G5, I’d disqualify you for that one. NO, that’s not what he is saying. What has been ruled legal is to use a setup tool to place the robot, then remove the setup tool from the field while the robot program runs.
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Thank you guys for your input. I think that we resolved that you are allowed to align your robot at the beginning of the match, but not put the aligning tool back on the field once the match has started. If this is incorrect, I would like to know so I can discern this correctly.
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I must apologize for directly addressing the post, I agree with what you said, but that was not what I was replying to.
The fact that the tool would be removed from the field prior to robot movement had already been established in this thread. The nature of these conversations is they build on each other and often times do not stand alone. To twist the context of the conversation is entertaining for yourself, I suppose. Ah, the joys of the world wide interwebs.
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I guess I wasn’t clear with my other response. I was just confirming that putting the aligning tool back in the field midway through the match is illegal. I knew that aligning your robot at the beginning of the match is legal, as it is part of pre-match setup, but was confirming that in comparison, using the aligning tool during a robot reset is illegal.
The last question was about putting it back in at each robot reset which would not be permitted which is I believe why @Golf commented.
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