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Unread 13-05-2010, 22:54
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Wayne TenBrink Wayne TenBrink is offline
<< (2008 Game Piece)
FRC #1918 (NC Gears)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: Fremont, MI, USA
Posts: 528
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Re: G13, G44 and Pinching Rollers

Quote:
Originally Posted by jspatz1 View Post
Absolutely right. Everyone has the right to push the envelope, that is what sometimes separates the good robots from the great. Any penalty-capable feature is a calculated risk. You can be sure there were many momentary lifts by pinch rollers this year that were not caught by referees. Judging how far you can push a rule is a design decision we face with almost every game. Just one aspect of predicting what the gameplay will really be like.
I don't advocate pushing the rules in hopes of slipping something past the referees. I just wouldn't write off a good idea because it introduced he possibility of a penalty. Many pinching roller ball collectors didn't compensate for irregularities in the floor and "carried" balls for brief periods. I think they deserved to get called for carrying whenever they did it, and the referees didn't owe them the benefit of the doubt on a close call. Nevertheless, a functional ball collector that collects an occasional penalty is better than no ball collector at all. 469 may have gotten called for active mechanism above the bumper once or twice, but that doesn't mean their ball deflector switch was a liability. 1918's wide ball collector was physically capable possessing more than one ball at a time, but the ease of ball acquisition outweighed the risk of penalties and the occasional hassle of having to take evasive action.
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NC Gears (Newaygo County Geeks Engineering Awesome Robotic Solutions)

FRC 1918 (Competing at St. Joseph and West MI in 2017)
FTC 6043 & 7911