R28 Robots must have team identification plates. License Plates with VEX Team ID# must be
clearly visible and legible at all times on a minimum of two opposing sides. License Plates must not be in a position that would be easily obstructed by a Robot mechanism during standard Match play.
Can teams have license plates on the front and back of the robot. A strict reading of the rules says “sides” so they have to be on the left and right side, not the front and back side.
Should inspectors at inspection time read the rule as sides only?
When I inspect, I consider the front/back to be opposing sides as well. Top/bottom would be opposing sides, too, but then it’s not clearly visible on the bottom, so you can’t do that. If you had a holonomic robot, who’s to say what is front/back/side anyway. For that matter, what defines front and back of a robot without a driver?
edit to add an addition: I was just thinking (I’m really old), interurban trolley’s have (had) a driver, but no defined front or back: at the end of the line, the engineer would take his throttle control off the console at one end of the trolley and walk to the other end of the trolley to reverse the direction and drive to the other end. Also, there are asphalt rollers where the driver sits sideways and runs the machine back and forth: both ends could equally be the front or back. Finally, if you built the IQ Kiwi bot, what’s front/back/sides on it? It’s a triangle!
I don’t think I’ve ever seen license plates on the front and back of a robot… If the license plates are clearly visible, I don’t see why the inspectors would take issue, since they’re on opposite sides of the robot and are legible.