5.1 Team Rules and Requirements

1. Code of Conduct: All team members must abide by the RoboNation Code of Conduct while participating in the Competition. Failure to abide by this Code of Conduct at any point during the competition season may result in the disqualification of the team and/or participants from the Competition, components of the competition, the full competition, and/or future competitions. (Section 1.7: RoboNation Code of Conduct)
2. System of Systems (SoS) Requirements: Teams must build an SoS to compete that meets all safety and system requirements. (Section 5.2: Safety Requirements, Section 5.3: System Requirements).
3. General System Requirements: Teams that arrive at the competition failing to meet the system requirements will not be permitted on the course until the system is modified to meet all requirements. (Section 5.3: System Requirements)
4. Uncrewed System Safety: Prior to entering the Autonomy Challenge courses, teams must demonstrate the ability to operate their uncrewed systems safely. (Section 5.2: Safety Requirements)
5. Team Composition: Teams must be comprised of 75% or more full-time students. (Section 1.3: Eligibility)

   1. Team Lead: One student member of the team must be designated as the “team lead”.
   2. The team lead, and only the team lead, will speak for the team during competition runs.
   3. The team must have at least one member on site who is conversationally fluent in English.
6. Attendance: Teams must have at least one representative present onsite at the competition venue during the competition hours (8:00 am – 6:00 pm) to be eligible for prizes. If teams cannot be onsite, they must notify RoboNation staff in a timely manner.

   1. Orientation Attendance: Teams must have at least one representative present for the team orientation. Teams who miss orientation will not be permitted to deploy their uncrewed systems.
   2. Daily Team Meetings: Team leads are required to attend daily team meetings. (Section 1.5.1: Daily Team Meeting)
7. Competition Suspension: The officials may suspend the competition at any time they deem that it is required (i.e. for safety or security reasons).
8. Course Entry: Unless otherwise specified, no team member is allowed to enter the course at any time (this includes wading, swimming and diving as well as floats, boats, etc.).
9. System Recovery:

   1. Competition officials are responsible for recovering disabled or out of control systems.
   2. Officials make all reasonable efforts to recover a lost system but cannot guarantee that they will be able to do so.
10. Risk of Damage: RoboNation is not responsible for any damage to a team’s uncrewed systems as a consequence of participating in the competition. The judges, officials, hosts, and sponsors can take no responsibility for such damage or loss.
11. Course Boundaries: An Autonomy Challenge run will be terminated if an uncrewed system interferes with course elements or crosses outside of a course boundary. This includes entangling, dragging, pushing, or damaging course elements or landscape.
12. Award Money: Only the student component of each team is eligible for award money.
13. Judge Decisions: All decisions of the judges are final. (Section 4: Scoring & Awards)