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Unread 23-06-2002, 23:13
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#0047 (ChiefDelphi)
 
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More info, and a little oppinion of my own

Posted by Daniel.   [PICTURE: SAME | NEW | HELP]


Student on team #192, Gunn Robotics Team, from Henry M Gunn Senior High School and NASA Ames.

Posted on 7/13/99 9:11 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Physical matches posted by Mike Kulibaba on 7/13/99 4:53 PM MST:



Mike,

I agree with you. Tipping is harsh. However I need to clear GRT's name on this one. We did not tip on purpose. We were trying to backdrive their elevator motors, which wasn’t beyond reason as we have two van door motors at a 6:1 gearing driving that puppy. In fact, we had been holding the robot down until the ref told us to back off. We didn’t understand, but we did what we were told, and when we tried to come back down they were already most of the way up. All we did was push down on that arm. Unfortunately, when we were backing off, a bolt got caught and we tipped them over. I’m not disputing the call, cuz I’m content with the fact that people saw our robot and hopefully think of GRT when talking about some of the “teams to beat”.

GRT would never purposefully break another robot. We know what it feels like; we had the same thing happen to us in 1997. I know what it’s like to see our pride and joy get lifted 3 feet into the air and dropped on it's head. Repeatedly. I was having a heart attack watching it! But it was within the rules, so we went home and got ready to build a stronger robot. In 1998 our robot was dropped off a truck when we were shipping it off. We had to fix a bunch of bent stuff and send it off again. That was another eye opener. This year we could have dropped that sucker off a truck and it would barely dent.

Accidents happen. Build your robot to take them. If GRT ever broke a robot, we would help them fix it. I promise, because that’s not our goal. We just play the game. We go right up to the edge of the rules, because common sense is enough to make us realize that nothing conservative ever wins.

Now for my own opinion (which has nothing to do with the way GRT plays the game):

I myself have never been an advocate of the way FIRST went about their anti-tipping rule. FIRST says in rule V5 that “strategies aimed solely at the destruction, damage, tipping over, or entanglement of opponents' robots are not in the spirit of the FIRST Robotics Competition and will not be allowed.” First of all, no “rule” should be based on someone’s intent, as intent can’t be accurately evaluated by anyone other than those who acted on that intent. There must be a better way to limit tipping. In fact, I was not a fan of the way a robot on the puck can raise their basket and suddenly become invulnerable anyway. Why should putting yourself in a compromising position make you less vulnerable? I think the rules limited us in a way we shouldn’t have been limited. I agree with Jeff from TKO about how we could easily go overboard, but I feel there should be a slightly more liberal in-between. Teams like 16 who designed their robot to grab a pole while on the puck had the right idea. There are ways to defend against defensive tipping...if only we could limit tipping to defense. I’m sure there’s a way.

-Daniel


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