Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

One bot at FLR always shoots after it is disabled. During FLR, it shot at both of the refs volunteering from our team on separate occasions. Fortunately, there were no injuries, so we can have a few laughs at them dodging trackballs.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

No penalty there, I hope. You were forced into it by another robot.

L.A. didn't have to deal with that much, as trackballs only left the field once or twice (headed for the scoring table).

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

That 'bot is not complying with the safety-driven guidelines published in Team Update 5:

• Design the mechanism so that it does not make any sudden movements
  when the Robot is powered on or off, or when the pneumatic system (if used)
  is charged or discharged.

• Design the mechanism so that any stored energy is released in a slow,
  controlled manner (over several seconds) when the Match concludes and the
  Robot is powered off.

The team should have been required to modify the robot design so it would not launch at the end of the match or if otherwise disabled.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

I think the penalty you got was the refs actually being lenient on you. Those balls can do a fair bit of hurt to someone (often referenced as being able to break your neck if it hits you right), and firing with enough force to actually clear the opponent's driving station (even with a bounce) requires a fair bit of energy. According to rule SO1, you probably should have been DQ'd or yellow flagged for that play, but you weren't, so be grateful.

Im not trying to suggest that you purposely tried to launch it like that, but the fact that your robot could probably set it on the ref's 'to watch' list.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

We launched the ball out of bounds, and it was a penalty, I remember this.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

There were a few occasions at the NASA/VCU regional where trackballs that had been hurdled or launched over the overpass bounced off the field, but I don't recall any penalties being assigned. The balls were simply thrown back onto the field. This may have to do with where the ball went when it left the field (or the fact that the bouncing wasn't considered intentionally launching the ball off the field). However, on some occasions, the ball nearly went over the driver or robocoach stations.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

Well I mean, any pneumatic fired launcher could move when disabled, depending on state at disable time. Theres nothing you can do about that.

Ours will return to its starting configuration, which shouldn't do any real damage to anything.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

The issue is about rapid motion in the mechanism after the robot is disabled. If the design is such that the motion is gradual, then there's less of a safety concern.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

If i'm right that was our team (during practice day) because our ball kept falling on the refs or when we hurdled it flew out through the exiting zones by jumping over the 1ft barrier, which I'm surprised that more balls didn't bounce out.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

Keep in mind that in 2005, you got disabled if you broke the plane of the driver station wall with a tetra, even if you didn't let go. Even without that experience, it shouldn't surprise anyone that actually launching a game piece of comparable weight over the wall would be considered a safety issue, particularly if done repeatedly. First be grateful that nobody got hurt, and then that your team didn't have to bear the full brunt of <S01> and <T04>. Best of luck getting your robot to operate safely before Bayou... 10 point penalties hurt, but not as much as getting hit in the face with a trackball.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

This is a gray area that is not specifically written in the rule book.
As long as fair warning has been given to allow a team to try and correct/modify a design function for the purpose of safety, its fair.
However, I dont think off the bat, a team should receive a penalty for it. Not that it happened already or if it occurs in the future.
Unlike in '06 when teams had to control shooter's ball speeds, there were no detailed guidelines about ball trajectories, speed, etc.

Re: Ball Bouncing Out of Bounds?
 

If you use a single solenoid valve then your pneumatic launcher will automatically vent when disabled. I can guarantee you 100% that it is impossible for the pneumatic launcher on our robot to fire while disabled.

As for accidently launching the ball over the wall... just like hockey players are responsible for their sticks, robot drivers are responsible for their driving.

The alternatives to a penalty... disablement... disqualification... or even just an extremely slow return of the ball to the playing field, are such that you should be quite grateful to the referees for their lenience.

Still, it's really cool that your launcher has that kind of power.

Jason