Some rules left open...

Me and my team were going through some of the rules and we had some questions that are kinda left open on the rule book…

  • is there some kind of pause between autonomous mode and user control mode or does it go straight from the autonomous to user right after the 20 seconds are done?

-do the colors on the rings matter for scoring?

-the flag has to be in a stand but can it be in a hole on the frame of the robot as a stand?

-does a team get disqualified if pinning of another robot happens during autonomous mode without wanting it to?

-Yes there is a short pause after autonomous so points can be counted.

-The color of the rings coincides with your alliance color, so if you are red, scoring a blue would score for the other alliance, while scoring a red would score for you

-Not sure on this, but I believe a stand must be more intricate than just sticking the flag in the hole.

-As I recall, it is okay to pin in autonomous, the penalty only applies to driver control.

I hope this helps:)

As long as the flag stays in the hole and is guaranteed not to fall out its ok. I would recomend putting the flag pole on an axle or putting the pole of the flag through at least two holes.

Please develop some kind of flag stand, over the many events we have been to we have often had to use broken flags because other teams have had inadequate flag holders. All it takes is an axle vertical.

Also for questions like these you will want to look here:Forums - FIRST Forums

There are Q&A for every section of the manual.

I woud like to quickly hijack this post. Is it legal to use your arm to prevent another robot from moving, or lifting its arm. Technically it wouldn’t be considered pinning, since pinning is prohibiting all movement.
Also, I don’t believe its entanglement.

I had a discussion with several Refs at the Ohio FTC event about pinning, specifically, pinning a robot behind the crossbar. What they told me was that if a robot was trapped behind the bar and it was clear the robot could not get out then they would start the Pin count. This means that the robot may be able to move a little bit but all effective mobility is lost. How this applies to your question is that if the Refs at your even follow the same idea then yes I believe this might be pinning. However Pinning is defined as “<SG6> A robot cannot pin (inhibit the movement of an opposing robot while in contact with one or more field elements) an opposing robot for more than five seconds. If a referee determines this rule to be violated, the offending robot will be disabled for the match”. From this I would gather that the first field element would be the floor, in your case, thats all that is needed. I believe the refs would call that pinning. You should ask before every tournament to get an official ruling on what interpretation of pinning the refs will be using.

Side note: I don’t think you would be able to effectively keep a robot from lifting it’s arm without pinning it against a wall in the first place.