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Originally Posted by Yan Wang
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thoughtful has 2 good points.
1. That picture is a bad example, as it simply shows a robot covering the load zone triangle and it is not clear that the robot is touching the surface of the load zone triangle.
2. The triangle is the wrong shape for this zone. It should be a square or rectangle.
However, it is what it is.
We all have 20/20 hindsight and it is easy to see that the zone should be of a shape different than a triangle. It would be easier for teams to score and easier for refs to make the call. Should this change be made? That is a tough question. I can see two sides to this:
1. Changing a rule or field element at this point of the season is difficult to do. 1000 teams have much momentum with planning and designing, and they have been banking on these to be plastic triangles for the past 7 weeks. Maybe someone found some design key or some advantage that uses this triangular shape in loading tetras. While it may seem unlikely, a team might have an array of photoelectric sensors who pick up the geometry of the triangle to automatically load a tetra, and therefore they depend on this triangle to be exactly what it is. If FIRST changed this triangle to a square, this team would be greatly impacted and their diligence would be diminished.
2. Looking at FIRST's rule G12, the first sentence says that purpose of the loading zones is to "quickly and safely receive tetras". Changing this triangle load zone into a rectangule (or square) would definitely let teams get their tetras quicker and give the referee a safer determination of "in" or "out" of the loading zone.
This is still a quandry. Does FIRST dash the development of a few teams who were depending on the triangle to be exactly what it is on the field prints, or do they change the load zone shape to an easier-to-determine shape of square or rectangle?
This decision is not easy. Keep in mind that this is a BRAND NEW GAME that we are all playing, and it is not going to be perfect. Just like anything developed for the first time (an unedited essay, a FIRST robot, a non debugged program code), it simply will not be perfect until it is put through its application and operated over and over and over. This game is a good one, as we can see from all of the great looking robots with amazing arms. We are going to see some neat things within the next few weeks. At the same time, we teams need to realize that we may just have to deal with these imperfections.
If I were the person making this decision, I will side with sticking to what is on the print, make the teams touch the load zone and give the refs some hardhats.
Andy B.