Quote:
Originally Posted by E Dawg
It seems to me the point of this update is to solve this problem. Many teams aren't capable of making a sturdy bot (as already discussed).
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This isn't true. The kitbot this year, if properly assembled (there are instructions), is quite sturdy. It can be trivially made even more sturdy with the addition of a few extra stiffeners (say, a minimum of 30 minutes of work and a $20 investment in some wood).
I've had robots I've spent 6 weeks on fail miserably. I learned from the experience. It was clear this was going to be a rough game; you cannot make it a not-rough game without choking it with penalties and forcing drivers to actively avoid contact, which is a terrible idea.
I will tell you that as a drive coach, it is very possible that this rule will be enforced in a way which will force me to advise our drivers to sit still and try not to touch anyone when they don't have the ball, or else do something completely benign and nearly useless like camping in front of the low goal. It is impossible to play active defense with a strong drive without having the risk of hitting another robot with a considerable amount of force. That is the nature of FRC; these are 150lb machines with north of 2 hp in drive power. If you did not build your machine to be able to withstand contact from another such machine, how is that any different than failing to build a shooter that shoots the ball, or a drive that drives? Perhaps we ought to remove the scoring, because it's unfair to robots that are unable to do it?
Of course, if a team shows up with a non-functional robot, I will do everything in my power to help them get it to a functional state and put it on the field. That is the spirit of gracious professionalism, and the competition demands it. Gracious professionalism should not, however, demand that everyone instead work around the fact that their robot is non-functional. For example, if a team's battery mount is haphazard, the onus on other teams is to
help them improve it, not to go out of their way to avoid hitting them in matches because it might fall off.