Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

At bayou, the refs are calling a penalty for any instance where a minibot falls off the pole. Is this happening at other regionals? I've seen many a minibot fall off at other regionals, sans penalty.

Thanks

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

Wasn't a penalty at WPI or BAE.

Our mini-bot went flying off the pole every-time.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

You might ask them what rule they are using to call that penalty.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

If it falls off before the end buzzer I can think perhaps BUT Only if combined with
The theory here is that a minibot on the carpet is not being used to climb the tower, but that's specious at best.

Alternatively, if the minibot falls far enough from the HOSTBOT This was never called at NJ

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

I would just have your team captain or coach walk up to the head referee in the morning and say you were looking through the rules and could not find this penalty and ask that he point it out to you. I would also bring a copy of the game manual with me. I have done this plenty of times at various events and the refs are always very nice about it and most of the time I am wrong and they are right but in this case it looks like the ref might be in the wrong.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

There is a blue box under <T14> that allows for invoking <G26> ultimately resulting in a penalty, thus, a referee can indeed give penalties for falling minibots, AND this is entirely at the discretion of the head referee

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

Hrrmm. There might be some design adjustment in order. It seems to me that even for the magnet stick-on ones, some thin polycarb could solve the falling off issue, without causing any friction, or deployment issues. Just something that flexes around the pole when putting it on, and comes around the other side of it, to keep it from falling off.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

That's preposterous! the minibot falling off the pole is a punishment within itself.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

<G26> is a gameplay rule that covers safety violations. Presumably—and admittedly this isn't actually explained clearly—it would only be invoked if safety was jeopardized during gameplay.

I'm not sure why there's a blue box invoking it in this circumstance. (The blue boxes "are not part of the formal rules, and do not carry the weight of [the] rule[s]".) If it's egregiously unsafe, the referees have the option to award a <T06> or <T09> card anyway, irrespective of what the blue box talks about.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

No need to shout at us.

<T14> is in the Field Reset section of the manual. Reading of the rule itself will show that the rule was meant to make removal of the Minibot safe. If it falls off itself during the match, there is no safety issue.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

We implemented exactly this solution on ours. It works rather well but there's still instances where it can fall off after coming back down.


I watched many webcasts through weeks 1 and 2 and saw many minibots fall off the pole, especially after they had triggered the target. Its frustrating to constantly have to modify our design based on different interpretations of the rules. Obviously it would be nice if the minibot stayed on the pole every single time, but the way I read the rules I don't think its require to.

-Brando

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

To me, this seems like a good situation in which to apply the guidance contained in yesterday's Bills' Blog concerning mis-communication at FRC Events:

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

Update: Our team spoke to the head ref this morning about the rule and he informed us they would not be calling this as a penalty afterall. Thanks everyone for the input.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

1) I wasn't shouting, I was emphasizing the important stuff. When I shout I use exclamation points.

2) Even when <T14> isn't a factor, <G26> can still act alone.

Re: Minibot Falling off pole - Penalty?
 

Glad to hear that the issue was resolved!

I also noticed (at least as well as could be seen from the webcast) that it seemed that 125 was successfully deploying the minibot yesterday without it falling off the pole! (Or, if it was falling off the pole, it was doing so after crash-landing on the base at the bottom.)