Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

I know one of the first things many people thought of this year in the first week was "What if the ball lands on the truss". The rules were even updated to give a solution to this problem. Personally, I thought this would NEVER happen. I don't know if it has happened yet this year, but it did this weekend In Finals 3 of Southington, 195 went for a shot, but it went high and bounced back on to the field. It hit right about at the white line then found it's way onto the truss. It took the refs a few seconds (although it seemed like it was much longer from behind the glass) to shake it off, it seemed like the ball just didn't want to come off. The video below is from behind the glass. Although somewhat blocked by the drivers, you can see the ball land on the truss. A better video will be available soon.

http://youtu.be/Qk4oPTdtlbQ

Will this ever happen again? We have just a few weeks left to find out.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

This happened at the Arizona Regional as well. Although, I don't remember which match it was.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

107??? managed it at Escanaba.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

They should just switch to a ball caught on the truss if done "un-intentionally' should be called as a rematch if the ball can't be dislodged in x amount of time by field staff.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

They should have not had a flat top to the top of the truss! but was an entertaining point of day, and did not affect outcome.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

A simple polycarb covering like the high goals would fix this too.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

A ball stuck on the panel but scored is better because the cycle can then start.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

We had one match back at Arkansas where our robot launched the ball, it hit the top of the truss and rolled across nearly the entire distance of it before falling off. We watched as it slowly rolled and nearly stopped, but it had just enough gas to make it off. Pretty exciting.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Of course. Having the reset crew fixing something outside the course is 9 million times better than anything on-field, but it still was quite comical, especially considering the purpose those panels were supposed to serve

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

It could definitely cause a ball to bounce back onto the field after entering the goal, however. That panel should really be angled back to prevent this sort of thing from happening. The truss itself should probably have been made with a triangular cross section to prevent stuck balls there as well.

I also feel that the field should really have been netted as was done last year. The fact that an alliance's single game piece can inadvertently be ejected from play, and that returning the ball to play sometimes requires 3+ people seriously disrupts the flow of the game. FIRST really dropped the ball (failed to drop it?) in terms of field design.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

The entire netting system and the support poles would be knocked down by a ball going into it.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Those panels were there to stop balls from re-entering play after scored. they have nothing to do with causing them to continue through the goal.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

I remember that one. The head ref was so busy watching what was going on at a different part of the field and didn't see the ball perched above him. One of the volunteers had to get his attention so he could start shaking his end of the truss. I got a chuckle out of that.
Oh the ball landed on the scoring side of the truss so the alliance got the ten points. If the alliance had their wits about them they should have placed a robot or two underneath it ready to catch it when it got shaken loose.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Happened at Escanaba and again at Boilermaker. Both times the refs nearly shook the thing apart getting it off there. Neither really ended up affecting the outcome of a match though, was more funny than anything.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

The rule explicitly says that if the head ref shakes the truss, it won't count as scoring the truss points.
I don't recall seeing any questions about it on the Referee test, though… :)

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

As far as i remember there were two or three of these incidents at the Escanaba competition, it was pretty entertaining to see and not too big of a problem for the ref to shake down.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

That seems really lame to me because they probably didn't put much thought in a rule (which is okay in hindsight because this will probably happen at the most like 1 time at a regional). I don't see why the alliance shouldn't get truss points, they had to get the ball up there somehow.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Is it so hard to give that panel a 5 deg angle?

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

You earn a truss score for getting you ball to pass through the plane. If you only got it up enough to get stuck and halfway through the plane, you didn't quite complete the task :)

Plus, the ROBOT is not causing it to finish moving through the plane.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Can you say end game?

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

In our situation, the ball did not get up there in an attempt to score over the truss, it got up there after a rebound off of the goal. Also, you cannot know for sure which side it will fall off of the truss. If it falls the right way once and that alliance receives truss points, then later another alliance does not receive points because it falls backwards, it is not fair to the alliance where it falls backwards. I would much rather have the ball back on the field in a timely fashion than worry about getting the truss points.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

These are rented trusses. They are standard fabricated trusses that are used for audio/visual equipment. FIRST does not own them, nor do they build them.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Whups, you're correct. Shame on me.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Rotate them 45 degrees then.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

The field would be out of spec.

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Rotate the spec 45 degrees...

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

Then bots might hit the truss, or balls might not make it over.

edge cases, I know, but that kind of change would make an angry riot

Re: Ball Bounces Lands on Top of the Truss
 

I witnessed the Arizona regional occurrence of this. It was rather amusing. They shook the heck out of it.

An elegant solution would be to place a single pipe lengthwise along the center of the top of the truss. It could be zip-tied in place, as it would not be subjected to much force. The trouble is that this would change the height of the truss, so it's not feasible to do at this late date.