[EricH]

If the field is communicating correctly, then the problem lies with either the teams or Murphy. Quite often, robots lose communication if a cable gets knocked loose--always check your radio-cRIO cable before and after the match. This is quite difficult to pinpoint using field equipment--everything will look normal, but the robot won't do a thing.

I know that at Arizona, we did have two experts (not necessarily professionals) who could find errors. One designed the FMS system and was judging the event; the other was a beta tester (2 years) who got a volunteer pass so that he wouldn't keep getting sent out of the field area because the FTA was always asking him to look at something. Sometimes, even they couldn't figure out why the comm link was lost.

As for replaying such matches when they occur, there is a really really good chance that that will cause the event to run very much over the time allowed. Not just a couple of minutes, either. We're talking running over the way the Championship always does--a couple of hours.