Quote:
Originally Posted by class1234567
Why does it matter? At the end of the day the competition will still be running if people are yelling robot ,or politely asking people to move.
|
I have heard of people just about getting run over by robots--their pushers shouted "ROBOT!", but apparently didn't bother to wait for the path to clear. The risk of injury goes up when people treat the yell of robot as a "I have priority, get the $^%# out of my way!" yell, and others don't know about it.
I'm with Donut on this; from my time as a student, I only remember it at the Championship (and then only from one particular team's robot escorts). The next year (2008), I was at an event with probably the tightest pits these teams had ever seen--no yells of ROBOT. 2009 and 2010, at the regionals I went to? Maybe once or twice. 2013? I heard 3-4 different teams using it, even when there was nobody in the way (and even those teams had their lead elements saying it, not their pushers screaming it).
As far as people not liking to be touched (something that somebody in favor of YELLING ROBOT pointed out), I would put the touch as the second method of getting attention. Now, a quick tap on the shoulder, most people won't mind too badly, especially if it's followed by an explanation. The first method is to say "Excuse us, we need to bring a robot through"; if they don't pay attention, tap them to get their attention, then repeat.
The real reason why the yelling is dangerous, though, goes far beyond just the competition. It goes YEARS down the road, somewhere you younguns haven't quite seen yet. The yelling increases the overall decibel (dB) level of the competition. In general, higher dB levels have shorter times you can hear them without losing hearing. Yep, you heard me right, losing hearing. (What? you ask--read that again.) In fact, if the volume level is over a certain amount, you're supposed to put on hearing protection--at my work, I'm wearing earplugs about every other day, if not more often, due to the loud noises that can happen with or without warning. What we're trying to do is to bring down some of the overall level so that we don't have to bring as many ear protection devices to hear longer. If you don't wear your earplugs in noisy environments when you're young, you'll be wearing them in quiet environments when you're older, but they'll be called hearing aids then.