avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

My team at bae this weekend had an issue where our network cable had gotten ripped out of the classmate. This caused our robot to drive on its own for a couple of matches.

My tip has nothing to do with this but rather something we found out the hard way.

Avoid hitting the E STOP at all costs. If your robot is not a danger, but is wandering aimlessly, most likely it will come to a stop on one of the walls.

Let it do this because you will still get ranking points as long as you don't hit the button.

Our team would have been ranked 11th and been picking alliance partners had we not hit the button. Instead we weren't picked at all (for obvious reasons...)

Another note, we did not hit the estop until he had come to a complete stop and was trapped in a corner, so in reality we achieved nothing by hitting the E STOP button.


However if your robot is a danger, obviously hit the button... we don't want anyone getting hurt.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

Pressing the E-stop does not effect your QS or RS scores. It merely disables your robot.

Now if you got a Red Card from the head ref for improper use of the E-stop button that's a different story...

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

I was about to post a quote from the manual to disprove you, but I was very surprised to find that this issue was not directly addressed in this years manual, only that a disqualified robot cannot earn any qualification points. That said, seeing how hitting the E-Stop button has always been considered the same as disqualification, I would expect this year to be no different.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

To flip around the meme, old manual quotes or it didn't happen. (I've hit the E-stop more times on the field than I care to admit. I also know how many times we've received a disqualification for it. The latter is a nice round number.)

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

That has not been the case for at least 5 years.

Last year introduced the "inappropriate e-stop use" rule, which results in a red card. The e-stop is to be used only in an emergency (hence the "e" in the name). Not wanting to incur a penalty is not an emergency. Smoking is an emergency.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

I just pulled your file from our team's scouting box (which was done Friday) and from what I see you had at least 2 matches that you had considerable issues. I cannot draw any conclusions since I didnt personally see it, but it also looks like you were a lower-scoring bot. I had actually stopped by your pit to learn more on Thursday and didn't make too many notes. The standings ranked you 29th of 53 or so and shows 5 wins and 2 losses with 7 matches (when most teams had 10). I assume you were disqualified 3 times or missed a few matches. We actually had you under consideration if we did get to pick, pending the reliability of your bot. We were lucky enough to get picked out of the 31st spot and compete in 1 round. Congrats to all BAE competitors! It was a tough competition and everyone did their best!

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

i will assure you, our autonomous ran in 10 matches. so we had a working robot. we only received qualification points for 7 of those. the field crew cited the estop as the reason

Interesting to note... where the field crew did not cite this rule it is good to know. Our robot started barreling around the field at full speed. for the sake of everyone the robot was estopped.


*unfortunately*(not for me but my team) I had an interview that came up on thursday. i am the team's only programming resource this year and we had some problems that day. So I assume it was a bit chaotic. probably why you didn't find out much. Also I am not claiming we earned the number 11 rank, however this is a flaw in the ranking algorithm, as we would have been 11th had we not estopped.

the 3 matches where we had error were a product of the broken network jack on our netbook. at some point on friday someone yanked out the ethernet cable. so when it popped out on the field, the robot went crazy.


Once again, my claims about the ESTOP are not based on suspicion, the field crew told us at the end of competition. if the estop is hit you will NOT receive any ranking or qualifying points for that match.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

When I stopped by, I wasnt looking for a programmer, simply information. I designed a pit scouting sheet that allows our team to collect very basic information, but make unique bots jump off the page. I did note that you were using skid-steer, 6 wheels, 3 drive motors, no camera, 2 autonomous modes, and a mini bot. Pit sheets are often only looked at if you perform well in the matches. I wish your team luck with all your competitions, BAE was very difficult for everyone and was a great way to start the season, preparing for other competitions.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

This is unfortunate, but it underscores the importance of knowing the manual and bringing a copy with you to the event.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

If the estop is hit without sufficient reasoning, you will receive a red card, which then stops you from receiving any RPs or QPs during qualification marches. During elimination matches, you will DQ your entire alliance for the match.

Again, it is not simply because you hit the estop that you got a red card, it is because you hit the estop and the referees did not judge your robot to be a safety violation while this was happening. If your robot was not in your control, you need to inform a referee before/after you slam that button.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

Yeah that was our only competition, and this year I'm glad the season's over. Just finish college I really don't have the time to sacrifice another whole weekend, I need to focus my time on that job search thing :).

Also, I don't know if it was a problem with your scouting, or our reporting. But your description of our robot seems a little off. The robot was a 2 wheel arcade drive with pneumatic strafe wheel. Also we only had one autonomous mode, but one that could start anywhere on the field as we DID use the camera.

Again I don't know if it was our team's inability to pitch the robot, or your recording or a little bit of both. Off topic, but this is something that I am very concerned about with our team, and shows once again the importance of business(presenting, connecting, presence, and marketing) on FIRST, because many times it is not how your robot performs, but the percieved value of your robot that gets you a chance.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

again i'm not sure what consists of a safety hazard... in our case our robot was not driven by joystick or autonomous, and trust me. at full speed that thing was cooking, and we had no idea or control over what it would do next

you make a good point that you should read the manual and always express hitting the estop button to a ref before you do it. let them make the call...

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

<G29> has you covered:

If your robot is out of your control (in whole or in part--if your arm's potentiometer fails and it starts flailing around), I'd say that counts as well.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

Yours' is a good caution to teams that using the eStop is very serious this year.

At NJ the head ref emphasized at the drivers meeting that the eSTOP will draw a red card unless it's obvious to the refs that the robot is in an emergency situation.
They are watching the robots and cannot tell if your driver controls are not working (and non-working controls do not necessarily constitute an emergency).

Request permission/guidance from a nearby ref before hitting the eSTOP unless the robot is obviously in danger of an electrical fire, then stand in the red box after the match to explain to the head ref the circumstances of your eStop. Pleading your case for legal use of the eStop is probably the best course of action.

Re: avoid hitting the ESTOP in competition!
 

I'd go more with the ability to pitch because I wrote down what Josh said.