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The official VEX IQ Robotics Competition Question & Answer system has closed for this season.

Official Q&A: VEX IQ Robotics Competition 2024-2025: Rapid Relay

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2452: Waiting to deliver balls into the Loading Station


Jonathon Delf
21-Jan-2025

According to rule SG4d, which states that "No Robot(s) may be in the Load Zone at the time the Ball is released by the loader," I would like to ask a question. If another robot is interacting with and trying to pick up one ball in the Load Zone, does the Human Loader have to wait for this robot to complete interacting with the ball and get out of the Load Zone before the second ball is dropped into the Loading Station during a qualification or finals match? If waiting is required and one robot is taking a considerable amount of time to interact with the ball and leave the Load Zone, this will prevent a second ball from being reintroduced back into the field after any scoring with the target happens, delaying the second robot from being able to do anything. For judging purposes, am I interpreting this correctly that the Human Loader will have to wait to place the ball into the Loading Station until the first robot is completely out of the Load Zone, even if it was interacting with another ball? Enforcement of this may mean if it takes a while for one robot to finish an interaction with a ball and get out of the Load Zone, there could be a period of time during which only one ball is actually legal to be in the field during this time, if my interpretation of this rule is correct. Thank you.

Answered by committee
23-Jan-2025

As described in clause D of rule <SG4>:

No Robot(s) may be in the Load Zone at the time the Ball is released by the Loader.

If a Robot is in the Load Zone (for any reason), a Ball cannot be legally Loaded through the Loading Station. There are no exceptions to this requirement.

To legally Load a Ball through the Loading Station, all Robots in the Load Zone must be fully removed from the Load Zone by driving out or—in the case of a stuck, tipped over, damaged, or otherwise inoperable Robot—through a Robot reset as allowed by rule <G10>.