2012 IRI Predictions

[Carolyn_Grace]

Originally Posted by Travis Hoffman

Thus ensuring a very congested space filled with moving machinery, increasing the risk of injury - you know how many people are involved in handling cables and "spotting" robots once they're on the bridge. I just foresee nonstop chaos and unequal access at the practice area. If a formal schedule isn't meticulously kept by a bevy of volunteers, and the traffic on the field isn't managed by another bevy, some teams are going to be shut out of the triple practice process (much like they were in St. Louis), and safety will become a huge concern.

This was one of my huge concerns when finding volunteers for the Michigan State Championship event. At MSC we had five ramps set up, with about two-three volunteers manning the practice field at a time. It was certainly busy, but people were very conscientious of being careful. As long as there are not extra people standing around creating robot campfires, then I actually wouldn't foresee this as an issue. Especially as the IRI planning crew and volunteers are fantastic at what they do. To add: IRI has a much larger area for a practice field than what we had at MSC.