IRI - Dates, Info and Rule Ideas

[Brandon Zalinsky]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

Dump the Kinect. Waste of floor space.

Another +1 to that from me. At Boston, one team used it. I don't know how it was across the rest of FRC.

[JosephC]

Originally Posted by Flak-Bait

Another +1 to that from me. At Boston, one team used it. I don't know how it was across the rest of FRC.

I believe one team wanted to use it at Northville, but it was broken.

[bduddy]

Originally Posted by Flak-Bait

Another +1 to that from me. At Boston, one team used it. I don't know how it was across the rest of FRC.

There were three different teams that used it at some point at St. Louis, which is the most I've seen. At SVR, I believe 840 may have been the only one that tried...

[Chris is me]

Replays in eliminations for communication issues on the field.

I know it'll never happen, but a man can dream, right?

[OZ_341]

Every year in recent memory, there has been something about the rules that really bugged me. Lane incursions, mini-bot point values, etc.....
But I really think that the GDC nailed this one. What about the crazy idea of leaving well enough alone?

Either way, we are hoping to go to IRI and get taken to the "wood shed" once again. Its a valuable, fun, and humbling experience.

[rick.oliver]

1. Pre-load with 3 balls each; no bonus points for balls scored in hybrid; 10 point bonus for leading at the end of hybrid.
2. Choose to pre-load or place in your own ball corral.
3. In-bounders may throw over the wall the entire match.
4. Make the Key a box (current width and 48" deep); robots are protected only when fully inside the box.
5. Bridge points 5, 10, 20 in quals and elims
6. 10 points plus 2 coop points to each alliance when balanced on coop bridge; no points for not balanced.

[rick.oliver]

Originally Posted by OZ_341

Every year in recent memory, there has been something about the rules that really bugged me. Lane incursions, mini-bot point values, etc.....
But I really think that the GDC nailed this one. What about the crazy idea of leaving well enough alone?

Either way, we are hoping to go to IRI and get taken to the "wood shed" once again. Its a valuable, fun, and humbling experience.

No changes is also a very good suggestion. Also hoping to attend again this year and would add that while it is humbling, it is also inspiring.

[JohnSchneider]

what about some sort of tip off. 1 member of each alliance can start hybrid at the middle ramp instead and said "moneyball" is on the middle ramp. When auto starts, the two robots would both push on the bridge, and the stronger bridge pull down would get the ball...or something to the equivalent.

Also Im going to be like the 30th person to suggest the Co-op bridge be 1 pt instead of 2.

[pathew100]

Originally Posted by JosephC

I believe one team wanted to use it at Northville, but it was broken.

Hey! I was FTAA at Northville. It was not broken. We had a bad 50ft USB cable that we had to swap out. It took 15-20mins to diagnose what was wrong. But the team (a rookie team at that) was able to use Kinect every time they wanted to.

Also at Livonia this past weekend, the host team Livonia Warriors FRC 2832 used Kinect in most of their qualifying matches.

I leave it to those teams to decide on how effective it was though...

[Nathan Streeter]

Coopertition Bridge Points
- 2 Supported robots on un-balanced bridge: 0 pts (instead of 1)
- 2 Supported robots balanced on bridge: 1 pt (instead of 2)
- 3 Supported robots balanced on bridge: 2 pts
- 4 Supported robots balanced on bridge: 3 pts
- 5 Supported robots balanced on bridge: 4 pts
- 6 Supported robots balanced on bridge: 5 pts

I really don't see more than 4 robots balancing on a bridge, but it makes sense that if you're that good at balancing you should be rewarded... I think with the level of the field at IRI, 2 robot balances on the co-op bridge would practically be a given. Reducing the point value of 2 balanced robots and adding the opportunity for more robots to balance would keep the challenge in it while preventing the co-op bridge points from getting ridiculous.

Qualification Alliance Bridge Points
- 3 balanced robots are worth 40 pts (same as elims)

I don't see why you shouldn't be able to do this in quals... If you'd rather win the match at the expense of the most seeing points, go ahead. By requiring 40 bridge points (and three robots) to win, you've put the handicap of not being able to get more seeding points on yourself...

Hybrid Scoring
- Any balls shot in hybrid that score are awarded the hybrid bonus. As some have suggested, this could be achieved by pausing the match after hybrid.

I've found the fact that balls shot in hybrid often fail to be counted frustrating... It seems like if a robot shot the scoring ball under hybrid control, it should get hybrid points. None of this trying to see if the ball had passed through the rim of the hoop by the end of hybrid period...

Hybrid Period Duration
- Hybrid period lasts for 20 seconds, instead of 15. This would enable more teams to realistically attempt scoring balls off the alliance bridges in hybrid.

It seems like the limiting factor for (more) teams doing this is the time...

Alliance Bridge Foul
- Alliance Bridge Fouls only apply when either a robot of the appropriate alliance is contacting it or during the final 30 seconds of the match.

This would help minimize some of the "pointless" fouls, while retaining the purpose of the foul. It would become more like the key and the lanes, which are only protected when in use.

Contacting Bridge Stipulation for "Stacking"
- Repeal G30-1, which requires a stacking robots to be in contact with the bridge.

This move is hard enough as is... I don't see what the motivation for requiring contact with the bridge is beside making the maneuver more sketchy and dangerous.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

Replays in eliminations for communication issues on the field.

I know it'll never happen, but a man can dream, right?

We could just go cold turkey and roll with the IFI equipment, right? We can loan out a few of those.

[EricH]

OK, brilliance. The GDC themselves said that they could adjust the balance points in either direction at Championships, by 5-15 points per robot, if they wanted to. ([G40] blue box)

The IRI organizers should do the same thing. How is up to them.

[Duke461]

One really important rule change will need to be on the maximum amount of basketballs in the corral and with the human players during the teleop period.

Bolded is the rule change:

[G31]
Only Inbounders may contact Basketballs; each Inbounder may hold a maximum of two Basketballs. During Teleop, Inbounders must remove Basketballs from the Corral immediately upon arrival, unless doing so forces an Inbounder to posess more than two Basketballs. All Basketballs in the Alliance Station must be held by Inbounders once removed from the Corral.
Violation: Foul

Blue Box
The addition of the six-ball exception is intended for situations where a large amount of basketballs are scored in a small period of time, not for strategic benefits to the alliance. Strategies aimed at starving basketballs to gain an advantage through this rule will be kept under strict observation and may still result in foul, as determined by the appropriate referee
Blue Box

The idea behind this is for a situation where it's basically impossible to keep it under six basketballs. Most likely cause of this is a ton of scoring all at once, e.g, 2-3 basketballs per robot, robot A scores in left middle, robot B scores in right middle, robot C scores in top/bottom. While this rule kind of goes without saying, we definitely want to avoid someone complaining and claiming that there was a penalty on the opposing alliance after they score 9 basketballs in a matter of seconds. And since it's IRI, this very well could happen.

-Duke

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by Ken Streeter

I like this idea!

One of my pet peeves with the scoring system this year is seeing robots shoot balls right before the end of hybrid that end up being scored as teleop points because the balls didn't trigger the auto-counting system soon enough.

In basketball, if the shot is released by the shooter prior to the buzzer sounding, it counts. It should be the same in Rebound Rumble.

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by JosephC

In a regular season event this strategy only works until the opposing alliance comes to your side of the field and hits you; as you are in their lane. However, if IRI announces that they are removing lanes, I'm going to force my team to redesign our robot .

Ahhh, the law of unintended consequences... It'll bite you every time!