Me and my team are participating in Soccer Open. We are using a dribbler, and have a few questions about the ball-capturing zone. In section 8.2.1, the rules state that “ball-capturing zone is defined as any internal space created when a straight edge is placed on the protruding points of a robot”, but also that “the ball must not enter the convex hull of a robot by more than the specified depth”. So, will the referee measure internal space or how much the ball enters the robot? (on our robot the ball does not enter the entire internal space created) Also, do the protruding points mentioned have to be part of the ball-capturing zone/dribbler, or is it in general on the rest of the robot? (we have shielding that extends slightly beyond the dribbler, but doesn’t participate in any way in capturing the ball)
Within the terminology of the rules any particular place where the ball can enter the convex hull of the robot can can be considered a ball capturing zone - frequently there is only one such zone with cylindrical robots but there may be multiple. All indents in the robot - whether intended to capture the ball or not - may not be deeper than specified in the rules. We measure this using a ball with a line marking maximum depth that we put into any indent in the robot and then look from the top. If the line is covered we consider the indent too deep and the robot non compliant. We only measure with the ball and the robot touching the ground, if the ball gets up onto the robot or the robot gets onto the ball and “swallows” it we ask teams to fix the issue and if they do not we proceed to penalize the robot as damaged every time it swallows the ball and require the team to demonstrate a fix for the next match. Exact handling of these “violatiom situations” depends on specific situations though so don’t count on it being exactly as described. Generally speaking it is usually not worth risking arguments about the last millimeter, just leaving some buffer in your design doesn’t hurt.
Hope it helps and do ask follow up questions if I was unclear, I am typing this on my phone…
Best Regards and looking forward to seeing your Robot
David