[dlavery]

Actually, I think that this makes sense. The goals are fundamentally inert, monolithic objects without an ability for agile motion. They are big rocks on wheels.

The robots are (theoretically) active objets with multiple degrees of freedom, one or more of which can be activiated without notice (from the perspective of the Human Player) in any direction. Almost every robot has exposed chains, gears, wheel sets, pulleys, cables, etc. which will cause harm if a finger/hand/elbow/head are mistakenly stuck into them.

Given these differences, I think that the differences in the penalties make sense. The penalties are structured to provide an implicit message: "these machines CAN be dangerous, and CAN do harm if you are not careful - so we are going to help you remember to behave around the machines with appropriate caution." During the excitement of a competition match, the Human Player needs to stay away from the robot, and the robot needs to stay away from the Human Player, just to make sure nothing goes wrong.

Given some of the unsafe behavior that I have observed from many teams in the pits (i.e. people shoving hands into drive mechanisms while the power is on, tensioning sprocket/chain assemblies by driving while pushing the chain with a bare hand, operating robot arms while people are inside the work envelope, hauling batteries around by using the connectors as a handle, etc.), I don't have a problem with anything that helps reinforce the concept of appropriate caution during the operation of these robots.

-dave