Official Q&A: VRC 2019-2020: Tower Takeover
514: Entanglement during a trapping call.
During a trapping count, if the bots become entangled, what is the right call?
Here is a scenario that played out this past weekend, more than once.
Blue alliance is trying to score in their goal zone, and gets rammed by red alliance.
Blue does not make an action to leave, continuing to attempt to stack.
However they then try to fight off the defending robot by backing up to push them off, thus causing a trapping count to begin from the referee.
It is apparent that in the process of backing up the robots have become entangled, with the anti-tip mechanism of the defensive red robot getting caught on the frame of the blue bot.
Blue still has a set of cubes and is attempting to score, but cannot disconnect from the red robot. As a result their movement is restricted for roughly 25 seconds, but at the same time, blue has been trying to score the whole time.
The training videos stress that even if the offending robot becomes stalled during a trap, the trapping count continues. Is this true for entanglement as well, assuming it to be accidental in nature? What is the proper way to respond to a robot that becomes entangled while trapped.
Additionally if a trapping count starts, and the trapped robot stops trying to escape and attempts to score, is the count continued, paused, or canceled?
In the specific scenario you have described, G13 would take precedence:
<G13> Offensive Robots get the “benefit of the doubt”. In the case where referees are forced to make a judgment call regarding a destructive interaction between a defensive and offensive Robot, or an interaction which results in a questionable rules violation, the referees will err on the side of the offensive Robot.
The snapshot description implied that Blue was clearly playing offensively, and Red was clearly playing defensively (Trapping is, by definition, a defensive interaction). A Team is responsible for the actions of its Robot at all times; a Robot which has engaged in objectively defensive behavior has assumed an element of risk under G13.
The training videos stress that even if the offending robot becomes stalled during a trap, the trapping count continues. Is this true for entanglement as well, assuming it to be accidental in nature? What is the proper way to respond to a robot that becomes entangled while trapped.
Entanglement during Trapping should be handled similarly to a stall. Again, because a Robot is responsible for its own actions at all times, a Robot which chooses to engage in this strategy should be prepared to minimize the risk of any Entanglement, stalling, or other situations which could turn the legal Trap into a G15 violation.
Additionally if a trapping count starts, and the trapped robot stops trying to escape and attempts to score, is the count continued, paused, or canceled?
This question is answered in the associated Referee Training video, around the 2:00 time.