2012 New York City Regional

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by RoboTigers1796

It is a shame that this same photographic evidence here, along with all the eyewitness accounts of the event, and a technical timeout to contact FIRST, resulted in no consequences, and the situation was almost brushed under the rug as matches carried on unaffected.

Assuming that at least one official observed the offending compressor feeding the robot, there should have been plenty of grounds to act.

[R73] is abundantly clear: "Compressed air on the Robot must be provided by one and only one compressor. Compressor specifications may not exceed nominal 12V, 1.05 cfm flow rate, 120 psi maximum working pressure. Off-board compressors must be controlled and powered by the Robot." Even though the rule is largely useless (if the pressure and composition of what's in the tanks is appropriate, all this rule does is impose a limitation and additional complexity regarding the way it's delivered), in this rare instance, with a huge tank, the ability of the off-robot compressor to operate continuously might have been meaningful as a design constraint. In that sense, this is the case where it's most important to enforce that rule strictly.

The head referee undoubtedly has the authority to enforce the rules during gameplay. Even if they didn't feel it appropriate to make the call before the match, if 522 placed their robot on the field containing air supplied by that compressor, the team was in violation of [R73]. The referee could then invoke [G01] at the start of the match, and disable 522. Having to sit quietly in the key during the finals ought to be punishment enough.

Indeed, the lead inspector might have had a more lenient option: to have the team dump the offending air and proceed to the match. But failure to comply with that would have been a more serious violation (of [T03], which would exclude 522 from the match entirely). And flouting of the inspector's ruling and playing anyway would have been a red card for the entire alliance.

So there were definitely a lot of ways to deal with the situation.

Originally Posted by RoboTigers1796

Above all else, the sheer size and power of this thing filling an FRC robot should have been a huge safety concern to everyone at the competition, and not brushed off as a silly rule.

The rule actually is a little bit silly. As for safety (not a silly issue), it can be dealt with ordinary precautions like FRC-compliant relief valves.