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Originally Posted by DougHogg
This year, FIRST has made a point of stating the Safety must be the highest priority. I am quite sure that this was stated with very good reason. We must all be very safety conscious if we wish our competition to continue. According to the head referee's post in another Silicon Valley Regional thread, the referees felt that an unsafe condition occurred in that first finals match and so they awarded a 30 point penalty to the #1 alliance. On the other hand, I am totally sure that no team in the Silicon Valley Regional intended to create an unsafe situation, but it happened anyway. So at this point, I think that all teams can learn an extremely important lesson from this match. As we go on to other events this year and in years to come, we have to keep safety firmly in mind at all times.
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Getting back to the first finals match at this year's Silicon Valley Regional, I imagine that the referees had the following rules in mind in addition to any other considerations:
<S01> If at any time the ROBOT operation is deemed unsafe, by the determination of the referees, the ROBOT will be disabled for the remainder of the match.
S05> A ROBOT may not impede the placement of TETRAS on the loading structures or the hand-off of a TETRA by a HUMAN PLAYER to a ROBOT. No HUMAN PLAYER or field attendant may be accosted by a ROBOT while placing TETRAS. Violations will result immediate disabling of the offending ROBOT, and disqualification of the alliance.
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The problem that I have with this ruling is that Team Update #4, Example 8 states:
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Robot "RED01" is in the red alliance loading zone, retrieving a tetra. Robot "BLUE01" is next to the loading zone, but clearly not touching the loading zone or RED01. Robot "RED02" approaches BLUE01, and pushes BLUE01 into the loading zone, where it contacts RED01 and prevents it from completing the tetra retrieval. No penalty is assessed against either alliance. RED02 was the source of the interference. Because BLUE01 was merely the object used by RED02 to interfere, and not the source of the interference, it did not violate <G15>. The red alliance is not given a penalty, because interference with their own alliance partners is permitted (although not very wise).
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Since this is exactly what happened in the final match, this situation was not really a judgment call, but a mistake. If the judges felt that it was a safety issue according to rule S01 or S05, the offending robot should have been disabled as those rules state. This is not to say that the people involved are bad people or did it on purpose. I think the level of professionalism of people in FIRST is such that this would not happen. Either way it is my opinion that alliance #1 is owed an apology at the very least. If I was in charge I would give both alliances an invitation to the championships as an exception and a recognition that a mistake was made. Just my .02.