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Originally Posted by MattB703
Pushing a robot to keep it off the platform is legitimate defense. Intentionally tipping a robot to keep it off the ramp is a penalty. It will be up to the ref to judge your intent.
My advise - don't purposely tip anyone over.
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Any team planning to use this "slight nudge" strategy as a defensive mechanism has already decided to put the referee into a judgement call decision. You might as well start writing your complaints now, cause some of these judgements will go against you.
Robots don't stop on a dime. I don't care if you don't have your hands on the joystick at the moment of impact. If the forward momentum of your robot
is the last bit of energy needed for that robot to tip over, you should be penalized, regardless of how slight the impact is, or how "tipsy" the other robot is. You have chosen a strategy that splits hairs over a rule concerning the intentional tipping of robots. As Beth has stated above, many would find this strategy to be Anti-GP.
Maybe next years KOP should have air-bag sensors, so we can measure just how much force was applied to a robot that tipped over.
If the air-bag goes off, you get DQ'd -- guess what, it no longer becomes a judgement call!
There are so many other potential strategies that are defensive in nature and aren't Anti-GP, that I don't see the purpose for this particular one. Why is the strategy to wait on their platform? A high CG robot is logically going to be shooting for the high goal at the end of the match. You will have at least a half field-length to block and hinder their approach to the ramp. Why would you waste your time sitting on their ramp for a potentially disasterous strategy? No, there are way too many other strategies that can be employed at the end game, than to take a chance on something as risky as this.