5j. If opposing robots have left the arena simultaneously (e.g. because they struck each other so hard that they flew apart) then the following will occur
i. The battle will be paused
ii. The robots will be placed straight back into the arena, in their former starting positions, without repairs.
iii. The battle will be restarted
(Note rule 5j was not quoted at the start of the original debate, it is included here for reference)
Simon_Windisch wrote:Insert a rule between 5i and 5j to explain how we decide which robot wins when both leave the arena at very nearly the same time, perhaps it should say (a) the first robot to leave the vertical plane described by the edge of the arena (b) the first robot to contact the floor of the ditch or (c) the first robot to contact the battlebox
Joey wrote:Options (3, b) and (3, c) in my opinion are quite subject to how wide the ditch is as described in 2, heh...(3, a) would be fairest but requires a wide ditch which a lot of arenas don't have, so it probably requires more debate. We do need an unambiguous, standard way of saying when a robot is out of the arena where it's not obvious and I can't think of a decent solution unfortunately
Andrew_Hibberd wrote:This is always a tough choice, but I would say floor of the ditch, or battlebox the other side of the pit. However there are casses where it could go to a judges dicision or joint roboteers agreement.
BeligerAnt wrote:Rule 4b is quite clear "A robot that falls off the arena has lost". A robot does not need to have hit the floor of the ditch or the wall of the battlebox to have left the arena. I'm not sure we really need "the first robot to leave the vertical plane described by the edge of the arena" - does this really make the rules simpler??? By having a 150mm wide ditch all robots can cleanly leave the arena and then the only criteria is whether the robot is on the arena or off of it.
Most importantly, we need to allocate judges to watch the fight carefully from different angles. If they cannot call the fight, it has to be restarted (existing rule 5j).
razerdave wrote:I say 'If the victor is indistiguishable by the judges, the robots shall fight again.'