Quote:
Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink
Draft of a question I plan to submit to Q&A:
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Per Rule G22, would either of the following actions by blue robot initiate the 5 second countdown toward a pinning penalty:
a) Red robot is fully supported by blue batter and is in control of a boulder. Red robot appears to be preparing to score the boulder and does not appear to be attempting to leave the batter. Blue robot makes contact (single or repeated) with red robot and remains in a position that would prevent red robot from leaving the batter.
b) Red robot has released control of the boulder and appears to be attempting to leave the batter. Blue robot is in a position that would prevent red robot from leaving the batter.
In other words, does G22 provide limited protection to robots on the batter that are attempting to score boulders, or are they subject to normal defensive action as long as they are attempting to score and not attempting to leave the batter?
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Have you seen the blue box added to G22 in
Team Update 10 (scroll down)? It pretty clearly answers situation B...
Quote:
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Originally Posted by G22 Blue Box from Team Update 10
There is no FIRST Robotics Competition specific definition of pin, so a
general definition applies; “to prevent or stop something from moving.”
As a result, contact is not required for pinning to occur. For example, a
ROBOT parked right behind an opponent that is on the BATTER could
be considered pinning because the dividers on the BATTER and the
parked ROBOT prevent the opponent from moving.
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I - personally - am disappointed to see this update that came late in the build season (and which flew under my radar until yesterday). We largely avoided designing around scoring from the batter based on concern with being pinned in. This update probably is good for the broader elevation of scoring, but further reduces viable defensive strategies.
Particularly if we end up having trouble scoring as accurately as we need from farther out, we may still be able to use the base of the tower as a "safe" shooting location.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr. Lim
The definition of pinning a robot on the batter has been on my mind a lot right now too.
When a robot is fully on the batter, it's basically enclosed on 3 of 4 sides by the field. An opposing robot simply has to drive near the open side to be considering pinning it. Will refs call it this way, and start counting down as an opposing robot gets near?
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The ambiguity opened up by the potential for non-contact pinning definitely does make this situation (and Wayne's situation A) more vague and subjective than I like. Hearkens back to some of the 2014 refing woes (although hopefully much less common).
EDIT: I'm adding a link over to the
Team Update 10 thread for commenting on this fact... it seemed that it hadn't been mentioned in that thread up to now.