“Note: Horizontal expansion is measured from the Robot’s perspective; i.e., it does “rotate with the
Robot.” Robots that tip over, or rotate while Climbing, are still restricted to expanding from the
chosen “side” that was measured during inspection.”
Here is my question: If I were to design a robot that intentionally flips on its back, and then expands upwards to climb the ladder, how high is the robot allowed to expand? While the note in confirms that regardless of the bot’s orientation, this side of the robot would have to be the only side of the robot that can expand (besides the top and bottom), but I’m still unsure of whether this would be constrained by the vertical expansion limit in if the mechanism was pointed upward relative to the field.
In addition to this, would the robot also be allowed to expand as much as it wants vertically relative to itself while on its back, thus being able to create a “wall” across the span of the entire field?
I will also be submitting this question to the official Q&A System once it is open.
This is probably worth a Q&A. From my current understanding of SG2, specifically the note below SG2c, the extent to which the robot can expand (vertically relative to the field BUT horizontally relative to the robot) will have to fall within the requirements of SG2 given that the note specifies that horizontal expansion “rotates around the robot.”
Although this may be sort of redundant given the SG2 limitation, I think SG3 would also apply to the type of expansion you’ve suggested since SG3 does not “rotate with the robot.” From my own interpretation of the game manual I’d say that both SG2 and SG3 apply to your expansion.
Regardless, I’d highly suggest a Q&A for clarification since this could potentially affect the design methodology of many teams in regard to climbing (including my own team).
I have an expansion question and im not gonna make a new topic, but pretend you have a simple drive train with an arm, and a claw connected to the end of said arm. If you can only expand in one direction, then that should mean you can only use the arm and not the claw, right? cause the claw would be expanding in another direction than the arm.
This is from SG2-5
Say this legal, then at what point would it be considered a claw or expanding. If i put a claw that when opened would expand to the 18" limit, that’s obviously expanding, right?
An example might be the robot “Fever Dream” by 9MotorGang
If you’re talking about the one on the left, yes it is legal, since the claw isn’t horizontally expanding past the original overall dimension of the robot.
Even if the arm extends forward (in the y-direction), the claw’s x-expansion does not go beyond the robot’s overall x-width, so it isn’t a horizontal expansion in this case.
However, the one on the right obviously isn’t legal.
Another fairly simple way to fix this is by simply having a ziptie poking out either side of the bot to make it 18 inches wide, which then expands your regime that you can work in slightly.
Your current idea will not be legal because if you look at sg2 and sg3 it says that vertical expansion is based off the field so always up no matter robot orientation. However for horizontal expansion it’s limited to the face of the robot no matter its orientation.
That was most likely already understood but in sg2 it states that if the face with the expansion was facing upwards it would be limited to the 6 inches not the vertical limit however if you changed the face so when you tip over is the back this would most likely be legal because it is not conflicting with the vertical expansion.
Here is an illustration:
The yellowish arrow indicates the vertical expansion
The orangey arrow indicates how you wanted to do this( not legal to expand past6 inches)
And the green arrow is another expansion face that you could use if you wanted to try this idea
