Immobilized Robot Rule

[pauluffel]

I haven"t been too thorough in my reading of the rule book, but I didn"t notice a rule this year about an immobilized robot like the one last year where if you immobilize an opposing robot for more than 10 seconds you get DQ"ed.
If this rule does exist this year, it could lead to some really nasty robots with the same dimensions as a crate that would exist only to get themselves stuck inside another robot"s crate stacking mechanism. In this case, the nasty robot would be "immobilized" by the other robot and thus force them to be DQ"ed. If this robot always went up against a team that it could use in this way, they would always win.

Could a robot pull this off? Or would they be disqualified for immobilizing themself? Or would everyone just hate them?

[Doug]

sounds like a back up plan if you cant build a competition worthy robot build a bin with some reflective tape and get eaten while the other robots are in auto mode hahaha and then when you are in their clever lifting mechanism deploy the spik....er i mean the wheels. Its sort of like that wolf eating the rock in red riding hood see we can learn things from fairy tails.

[Jon Lawton]

I did not see such a rule in this year's manual either. I posted this question to FIRST's forum yesterday, and am waiting for their response.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

We discussed this at our kickoff yesterday and came to the conclusion that this rule will be resurrected in one of the team updates. If it isn't a rule, "gracious professionalism" demands that there be no interference of this type.

[JTH]

I'm not sure about gracious professionalism "demanding" that you don't pin other robots, as long as no damage is done.

However, regardless of such rules, it general doesn't make a very good strategy, because it takes your robot out of the game also. It isn't like last year where pinning in the opponent robot in your home zone could get you extra points.

[Digo]

I too think this rule is going to come in an update (the one saying you can't immobilize the opponents).

But I'm not SO sure about that anymore. Last year I was very impressed with FIRST's thought's about Gracious Professionalism when they said robots could drag the others.

I vote against that kind of thing. It takes a lot of creativity, time, and skills to build a good robot that scores a lot of points in a very efficient way, but it's not so difficult to build a bulldozer that gives the good robot a hug and keeps holding it for the rest of the game.

[pauluffel]

How I was thinking about using this rule was not to make a robot that would immobilize others, but rather force itself to be immobilized. If one robot had a pair of arms that were desinged to grab crates on either side, a slightly larger than crate sized robot could wedge itself in between the arms and thus force the other robot to immobilize it and by doing so disqualify the other team. This would not be a very effective method of gaining qualifying points, but in the elimination rounds it would be a very good way to win. It might a be a very easy way to get picked for the elimination matches.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Again, forcing another robot to disqualify itself flys in the face of "GP". Anyone can design an anchor but what does that do for the team, what does it teach how does it make the whole competition enjoyable?
We must remember that there are rookies reading this board who don't have the exposure to "gracious professionalism" that veterans do. We need to help them learn the concept.

[Katie Reynolds]

Just wanted to point this out (from Update #5)"

A robot cannot inhibit the movement of another robot by pinning against the field border, diamond plate or platform/ramp structure for more than 10 seconds. If a robot has been pinned for m10 seconds, the team with the pinning robot will be told by the referee to release the robot and back away approximately 3 feet. Once the pinning robot has backed off by 3 feet, it may again attempt to pin its opponent and, if successful, the 10 second rule starts over. If a referee determines this rule to be violated, the pinning alliance will be given two minor penalties. Another violation of this rule or another warning will mean the robot will be disabled for the remainder of that match after it has backed away from its opponent and disqualified after the match ends.

- Katie