Our team has a Rapid Relay autonomous question that we have not been able find answered anywhere else, including in the Game Manual (v1.0):
Q: What happens in autonomous if you try to score, hit the Goal Wall but miss, and the ball ends up in the middle of the field.? Assuming your robot can’t “find it” with your autonomous code, is the ball lost for the rest of that game? It’s our understanding that a Loader can reach only into the Pickup Zone (after the ball has touched the floor) to retrieve a ball. During autonomous, can a Loader reach into any other part of the field, assuming they don’t touch (or lean on) the field itself to “rescue” a ball, then reload it as per the rules?
When determining situations like this it’s important to remember RSC1 Standard rules apply in most cases.
You may wish to take a look at the game manual again!
I believe you’re correct, it would be lost if your bot isn’t designed to find it. However, if you want to get absolute clarification then you could pose that into the official Q&A section here: Official Q&A: VIQRC 2024-2025: Rapid Relay
I can see the thinking that maybe if you “reset” your bot (e.g. team members touching the bot to return it to the starting point) that perhaps that means you get to “reset” the balls too but I think that would be something that teams would actually abuse if true.