Official Q&A: VEX IQ Robotics Competition 2025-2026: Mix & Match

<GG10>

Handling the Robot mid-match is allowed under certain circumstances. If a Robot goes completely outside the playing Field, gets stuck, tips over, or otherwise requires assistance, the Drive Team Members may retrieve & reset their Robot. To do so, the Team must do the following: (a) Signal the Referee by placing their VEX IQ Controller on the ground. The Head Referee may ask the Driver to demonstrate the problem using the Robot Controller before approving the Robot reset (e.g., confirming that the Robot is broken, undriveable, or stuck on an obstacle) if the issue with the Robot isn’t obvious.

Could you provide more definition/guidance for "otherwise requires assistance?"

On one hand I could argue that in IQ, this is meant to provide relief any time a team feels their robot is incapacitated in any way. On the other hand, I could argue that it is intended to allow teams to fix a "broken" robot or a robot that becomes mechanically stuck/disabled in an unintended way, and NOT allow relief from design flaws or non-mechanical issues (of course, my wording is a slippery slope since you could argue that a design flaw is what causes a part to break/fall off the robot or causes the robot to get stuck).

The specific example that I’m encountering is with a conveyor-bot – the pin travels up the conveyor and doesn’t fall into the coral thus blocking any other pins from falling as well. The robot is not mechanically incapacitated, but the robot no longer fully works as intended. More generically you could say if a game piece enters the robot causing it not to work or blocking a crucial path.

I’ve been allowing a reset under the generic sense of “otherwise requires assistance,” feeling that the time penalty to do this is significant and being confident that the reset is not strategic, but the e.g. in GG10a only mentions mechanical issues, so I want to ensure I’m calling it in the spirit the GDC intended.