Official Q&A: VRC 2019-2020: Tower Takeover
551: G8- Field cable malfunction
At our last competition, in in one of our team's matches, the VEXnet Field Controller's Cat-5 cable had a poor connection. It worked minimally through the match. It worked at the beginning for about 30 seconds and then stopped. The driver turned off and on the robot. It then worked for a couple of seconds. The driver said "somethings wrong, its not working, I think it's the field" and continued trying to engage the robot unsuccessfully. At the end if the match, the officials decided the cable was faulty and replaced it. The team was told they should have set down the controller ans said "Faulty wire." In reviewing the rules and Q & A's I don't see this particular scenario addressed. How should the team have handled this? what is the protocol if part of the field is not working correctly?
Thank you!
First, you are correct, this type of troubleshooting process is outside of the scope of the official Game Manual; it is generally at the discretion of a given Event Partner and/or Head Referee how they would like it to be handled.
With that being said, the Game Manual does include a provision for a Match replay in extreme circumstances:
<G20> Replays are allowed, but rare. Replays are at the discretion of the Event Partner and Head Referee, and will only be issued in the most extreme circumstances.
To supplement this rule, the REC Foundation provides a Replay Criteria document, which provides some recommendations to Event Partners for handling replays.
https://www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2020/01/vrc-replay-criteria.pdf/
"Field faults" which hinder the performance of one or both Alliances are one of the few categories that do sometimes warrant a replay; however, it is at the sole discretion of the Event Partner and/or Head Referee whether they choose to grant a replay or not.