Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

I've seen alot of team do the following in the Teleoperated Period

1. Drive forward and knock their ball off the overpass
2. Continue Driving forward having the ball land behind them
3. Pause for a second, apperantly considering going back to get the trackball
4. Progressing in the counter-clockwise direction without picking up the trackball.

so some questions:
As there is no way of getting points for hurdling the ball when removing it (it needs to cross a lane marker first), team that store the trackball on themselves would have an advantage if they even tried to have the ball fall on them, right?

As you are allowed to move anywhere within a quadrant - wouldn't you want to turn around and go get your trackball instead of doing a whole lap and losing a hurdle?

why isn't this happening? Veterans from the 1st and 2nd week regionals... please enlighten me!

thanks!

-Leav

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

They're probably afraid they'll know the ball backwards, or inadvertently cross the line and get a ten point penalty.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

I second that. G22.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

Thirded. Pretty much, if there's a risk of going over the line the wrong way, I think most teams will go around again rather than risk a penalty. I know I would.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

ok, but is there any risk of staying to long in a single quadrant?

were judges calling impeding if you stayed too long and tried to get the trackball?

If there is no risk of violating <G22>, are there any other risks which are keeping teams from staying and getting the trackball?

-Leav

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

I did not see any judges making this call in St. Louis.

In one match we were with two other teams who could not hurdle. We stayed in the home zone almost the whole match and had them bring us the balls. Seemed to work.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

It might be different for robots with torque-ier drivetrains which have a lower top speed, but for us it usually makes more sense to make a lap rather than get the ball since the amount of finagling you'd have to do to go get the ball then go takes not much less time than going another lap and getting it the second time around. Also, there's often another ball to knock off, so you're going to go get the other ball off first anyhow.

I'm sure other people have had other experiences.

-q

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

It might be that there are afraid of crossing a line, but I believe that they thought and think its easier to go around a lap than fight traffic. Most teams are going to keep moving in the CCW direction. Most of the traffic jams happened right as you cross into the other lane. You would get one or two robots either going after a track ball or setting up for a hurdle, and just about everyone would either wait about 3-4 seconds or there would be enough room to get by on the inside by the lane divider. Thats all I'm going to say.

P.S. I'm really tired or my eyes are not adjusted yet, because I was using "lain" instead of "lane" and was thinking, "thats not right. That L supposed to be capitalized."

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

We found in our practice sessions at home, and at BAE last week, that it was often easier to just go around and make another lap than to try and chase the trackball backwards. Half the time, when we'd go back for it, we'd bump it and send it across the line, and have to make the full lap anyways.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

Looks fine to me, but then I'm Scottish and have a son named Iain...

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

As a driver, granted I havn't had a chance to drive super competitively this year, but as many of you have stated it is far easier and less time consuming to drive around and pick it up on the second pass. Like in previous years, lots of times it is easier to go get another scoring item (or drive around) than taking tons of time turning around and risking a penalty. There is no penalty for driving counter-clockwise.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

because at that point (even more so the rookies) the drivers arent thinking about it. i know today during practice, we were more concerned about how pieces were falling off of us and how we were being pushed around the track by another team. do honestly hinesight is always 20 20 but most people cant think that fast...

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

often times, i know with us as it is with many teams, it doesn't take much time to make a lap anyways. that plus the potential of a 10 point penalty/waste of time make it much more worthwile to complete a lap and grab the ball head-on.

Re: Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant
 

I saw some of this occuring at St. Louis as well - the coordination required to turn around WITH an arm / appendage / etc sticking out is greater than expected, especially with 5 robots making laps around you.

Perhaps as time progresses, drivers may eventually become adept at this maneuver.

-Alex