Petition to end the shouting of ROBOT

[Zuelu562]

REQUIRING it is the problem here. If there are excessive people in the aisle, I can understand "Robot Coming through", and politely asking people in the general area to stay in their pit area and not take up part of the aisle used for transporting robots.

Also, excessive shouting of it, as pointed out in OP, makes it lose all meaning. More often than not people just stare as you nearly take out their ankles and the person they are talking to in the aisle pulls them closer to the pit.

Thinking again, I really think the shouting of "ROBOT", "ROBOT COMING THROUGH" revolves around poor management of people standing in the aisle near the pit. KEEP THE AISLE CLEAR.

[CENTURION]

Wow, I'm really surprised to see so many people against this practice!

My team only ever goes to one regional, so I guess it's different at others, but I've never heard the call of "ROBOT!" as a "Get out of my way or I'm going to run you over!" sort of thing (Which is certainly rude and arrogant), I've always heard is as a warning, like "FORE" in golf.

We always have people out in front of the cart to clear a path, and don't go ramming the cart through if there are people in the way, but we still yell "ROBOT!" as a warning to people nearby to watch themselves. We also often yell "Watch out! Robot coming through!"

Robots often may have protruding arms or elements that (while inside the frame perimeter of course) may still hit people who thought they were out of the way. If you direct your warnings only to the people in front of you, who are in your way, people on the sides of you may not be looking out for you.

So alerting people in the area, not just the people directly in front of you is necessary in my opinion.

[Tom Line]

Signed.

I find teams who calmly walk through the pits with someone in front of the cart politely asking people to move and saying 'excuse me' far more professional that someone yelling 'robot' constantly.

In some cases the students seem to think that volume is key, and actually hurt your ears as they walk by yelling it.

[Alan Anderson]

Originally Posted by lcoreyl

I'll be instructing my team to use the PVT: the polite vanguard technique (Alan--want to split the trademark on this phrase? We'll be RICH!).

I put it in the public domain a year ago.

[gabrielau23]

Agreed. At Chesapeake and DC, where there are 60+ teams, it's very hard to hear and there are incredible amounts of people in the pits. While we don't do it all the time, it's just hard sometimes to get people out of the way. Is there a polite and non-polite way to say it? Yeah, but yelling Robot is sometimes the only way.

[gabrielau23]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

Wow, I'm really surprised to see so many people against this practice!

My team only ever goes to one regional, so I guess it's different at others, but I've never heard the call of "ROBOT!" as a "Get out of my way or I'm going to run you over!" sort of thing (Which is certainly rude and arrogant), I've always heard is as a warning, like "FORE" in golf.

We always have people out in front of the cart to clear a path, and don't go ramming the cart through if there are people in the way, but we still yell "ROBOT!" as a warning to people nearby to watch themselves. We also often yell "Watch out! Robot coming through!"

Robots often may have protruding arms or elements that (while inside the frame perimeter of course) may still hit people who thought they were out of the way. If you direct your warnings only to the people in front of you, who are in your way, people on the sides of you may not be looking out for you.

So alerting people in the area, not just the people directly in front of you is necessary in my opinion.

+1, or thumbs up. Totally agreed.

[CalTran]

Perhaps to go along with the Mustang/Cowboy theme our team has going, I'll add a steel cowcatcher to the front of our cart so we don't have to yell "robot" anymore...

On a serious note, comparing yelling "robot" to "fore" is an analogy that I don't think holds. On a golf course, people could be yards and yards away and are already somewhat expecting a golf ball to the head. At a competition, with public pits and what not, people aren't coming for the thrill of getting run over by a sprinting teenager wildly piloting a cart.

[theanimal160]

Originally Posted by Siri

The majority of the people who hear you yelling at a disruptive level are actually, actively in your way? Wow. That's a ridiculously big problem in and of itself. In the 7 years that I've been the vanguard of our cart, I've never had to ask more than maybe 1 in 15 of the people who would hear me yell "robot" to please move out of the way. In virtually every pit layout I can imagine, the vast majority of people who hear you yell are not impeding your movement--yelling merely creates more chaos and annoys people who don't actually have to move.

As the man pushing our robot around at the STL Regional, yes, having to yell EXCUSE ME ROBOT COMING THROUGH was on the way to and from every single match. There were two or three times when it was clear, and the only notable time I can remember the pit lanes being truly empty was after the last match of the finals.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Perhaps to go along with the Mustang/Cowboy theme our team has going, I'll add a steel cowcatcher to the front of our cart so we don't have to yell "robot" anymore...

On a serious note, comparing yelling "robot" to "fore" is an analogy that I don't think holds. On a golf course, people could be yards and yards away and are already somewhat expecting a golf ball to the head. At a competition, with public pits and what not, people aren't coming for the thrill of getting run over by a sprinting teenager wildly piloting a cart.

Right, and I'm not advocating people barreling down the aisle with 200ish pounds of cart and robot. Go slow, be careful, and watch out for people.

But at the same time, the drivers and robot need to get places, and need people out of their way And we don't want anyone to get hurt when, say, they take a step backwards into the aisle (as teenagers will sometimes do), and get smacked by a robot appendage.

[Koko Ed]

To be honest if you want to make a petition how about one to have people stop clogging up the pits using it as a social club and stop blocking the entrances and exits which is equally rude and obnoxious and a fire hazard?

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

To be honest if you want to make a petition how about one to have people stop clogging up the pits using it as a social club and stop blocking the entrances and exits which is equally rude and obnoxious and a fire hazard?

Or teams who expand their pits and occupy nearly the entire aisle...

As far as I'm concerned, 'green shirts' at events should feel free to be as aggressive and proactive as possible to eliminate pit crowding. I really respect teams that do it right.

[Anupam Goli]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

To be honest if you want to make a petition how about one to have people stop clogging up the pits using it as a social club and stop blocking the entrances and exits which is equally rude and obnoxious and a fire hazard?

BEST robotics does this at their events. They assign 5 pit passes, 4 student and 1 adult pit pass. I'd rather not see FIRST do a system like that, since media often walks through the pits, but I'd like it if teams emphasized that the pits are not where socialization happens, and neither should students who don't know much about the robot come in groups to the team pit and start harrasing them, asking them what is wrong. Our team has every student that isn't pit crew stay in the stands scouting matches or doing pit scouting in groups of 2-3. Our pit is rarely crowded, if ever, since everyone has a job to do.

[CENTURION]

Originally Posted by Wing

BEST robotics does this at their events. They assign 5 pit passes, 4 student and 1 adult pit pass. I'd rather not see FIRST do a system like that, since media often walks through the pits, but I'd like it if teams emphasized that the pits are not where socialization happens, and neither should students who don't know much about the robot come in groups to the team pit and start harrasing them, asking them what is wrong. Our team has every student that isn't pit crew stay in the stands scouting matches or doing pit scouting in groups of 2-3. Our pit is rarely crowded, if ever, since everyone has a job to do.

Our team has been talking about implementing a similar system just for our own pit. Besides the drive team, and one supervising mentor, there would be a limit of one or two students/mentors in the pit area.

[dcarr]

Originally Posted by CENTURION

Our team has been talking about implementing a similar system just for our own pit. Besides the drive team, and one supervising mentor, there would be a limit of one or two students/mentors in the pit area.

We issue the nice metal-style nametags for our pit crew/mentors, both to allow judges and other teams to know who they are talking to, and to make it clear who is allowed to be in the pit.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by Wing

BEST robotics does this at their events. They assign 5 pit passes, 4 student and 1 adult pit pass. I'd rather not see FIRST do a system like that, since media often walks through the pits, but I'd like it if teams emphasized that the pits are not where socialization happens, and neither should students who don't know much about the robot come in groups to the team pit and start harrasing them, asking them what is wrong. Our team has every student that isn't pit crew stay in the stands scouting matches or doing pit scouting in groups of 2-3. Our pit is rarely crowded, if ever, since everyone has a job to do.

To be fair it's often parents who want to come down too the pits as well. I remember at GTR West one year I saw a team of 30 just covering the pit aisle with 30 people including a baby in a carriage.It's as if they had no concept there were other teams in the pits with them.