Rule G05 and Autonomous

[Kevin Sevcik]

Originally Posted by Mark McLeod

We will be told when we can power-up/power-down our robots, we do not get to choose.
We are always told to start the robot after it's been placed on the field for safety reasons.
Occasionally, the FTA has the discretion to direct us to start the robot before coming onto the field, but that's for FTA reasons, not team reasons.

Really? I've heard FTAs recommending teams turn bots on at the end of the previous match, but I've never heard one insisting we leave a bot off till it's on the field. We've always turned our bot on well before we even step on the field to get the booting started so the radio is already booted and ready when we're on the field. It makes things run lots smoother and quicker, since the radio is the entire reason for the huge delay involved in a robot reboot. The radio takes a good 45-60 seconds to come up. The cRIO is usually up in 15-20 or so. Atleast that's about how long I estimate waiting whenever I warm boot the cRIO for programming purposes.

Anyways, I've never heard of FTAs requiring robots to be off, and I'm curious under what authority they'd do so. Is it the generic "Anything the FTA says goes" reasoning, or is there something in writing to back this up?