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
2495: Ball Returning Out of Lower Goal
We experienced a unique situation at a competition. A bot that is capable of launching two balls concurrently - one into the top goal and one into the bottom goal - launched both balls. The bottom ball cleared the switch, and fell to the floor behind the Goal Wall in the Pickup Zone. However, the TOP ball cleared the upper switch, went into the Goal Wall, and bounced back OUT of the lower goal. This ball was now back on the field.
<SC3> States that a ball that passes through a Target and then bounces back out into the playing field does not count as a scored ball and the ball remains in play.
Our question is since the ball passed into the Goal Wall, should it be counted as scored? This wasn't just bouncing off the switch and back in but physically went into the Wall and back out the other Goal.
What SHOULD happen in this situation? The ball has already been scored once and was not eligible for scoring again but we were unable to load another ball into the field.
- Should the referee pull the ball from the field?
- Should the referee direct a team member to pull the ball from the field?
- Should the team pick up the ball with the robot and throw it out of the field?
Everyone was uncertain about what should happen, so the team picked it up with the robot again and relaunched it into the Goal Wall. However, the score did not include the second score of the ball.