Quote:
Originally Posted by jspatz1
In my opinion, incurring a penalty because another robot bumped you when you were gripping a ball is not the kind of situation that is being refered to in the "one robot cannot cause a penatly for another robot" rule. Significant contact between robots is expected and part of the game. If it was the nature of your gripper that such robot contact caused you to lift the ball, then that was a vulnerablility of your design and a risk you chose to take.
|
Pardon me for veering off the original topic, but I have a related question and comment.
The question: If a "red" robot was parked on top of the bump next to the "blue" home zone, would/should they be penalized if a red robot pushed them off the bump and into the blue zone, making them the 2nd red bot in the blue zone? Is that part of normal contact or is that forcing a penalty? (For example, if my alliance is playing against 469 at the MARC and we put a robot on the bump right next to them, would we get a red card if somebody pushed that bot off the bump?)
The comment: There has been a lot of discussion about robots that are inherently capable of violating rules which are difficult for the referees to judge (2010: 3" incursion, active mechanisms above the bumper, multiple ball possession, pinching roller; 2007/2008: envelope violations, etc.). In my opinion, unless a feature or capability is specifically forbidden by either the robot rules (inspector's call) or game rules (referee's call), teams have the right to risk penalty in exchange for enhanced capability - as long as there is a legitimate/legal use for that capability. However, I think these teams should expect that referees will rule against them in the case of a close call. (For example, a robot with a wide ball collector that is posessing one ball while it "herds" another with the same device does not deserve the benefit of the doubt.)