Rule Questions

Here's the official answer from FLL on the questions we came up with on Saturday. Here's the complete conversation. The answers in italics are from Scott Evans, FLL Engineer and Match Designer. He's the one who designs the challenges each year, and makes up the rules.

1. If the red truck is brought back to base by the robot, can the student then move the truck to the parking lot (by hand) to complete the requirement of having it in the parking lot at the end of the match?

No. QA25 clarifies that a truck moved to the lot by hand is no accomplishment of the robot, and will still be considered to be in Base, just as if it were instead moved to a box off the table.

http://www.firstlegoleague.org/default.aspx?pid=29620

I think the team's plan was to bring the truck back to base, remove the barrels from the truck, then place the truck (by hand) in the parking lot. Would this give them points for the barrels in the base + credit for having the truck in the parking lot?

half: They'd get credit for the barrels being in Base, since the robot did that, but then the ROBOT would have to take the extra step of pushing the truck into the lot.

The other scenario was to retrieve the truck to base, remove the barrels, then at a later point, have the robot pass through base, and push the empty truck into the parking lot.

That's allowable.

2. If, when delivering the car to the white property, the car doesn't make it all the way in, and some of the car is on the water, but still touching the white area, is this OK? I assume this is OK because the car is still touching the white area, no matter that some of it is in the water.

By Rule 12 and the fact that the scoring condition is "TO," as long as any part of the car breaks into the airspace above the target, the kids are all set.

3. If the coal car falls off the track when it hits the bumpers, do we assume it's then a stray object, and can be removed by the refs, or can the student still take it to the base by hand?

Stray.

I referenced the Q&A in my answer to this one, which talked about the coal falling out, but we are wondering what happens to the car if it falls off the track. I would assume it's then a stray object, along with the coal, and they would get no points for that mission. Am I correct?

You got it right!