Petition to end the shouting of ROBOT

[DarrinMunter]

Only heard ROBOT yelled a few times at Crossroads, I did hear a LOT of excuse me please! Very nice!
I think it was due to the wide aisles, carts could move around easily even with an overflow of people around the pits.

[vhcook]

Originally Posted by CalTran

So we're competing in Arkansas this week, and even with the tiny arena, it's still unnecessary to yell "Robot!" Sure, you have to slow down because there's a lot of traffic, but when you have a line-of-site from your pit to the field, you don't need to go fast. Even from the teams in the wing, you can probably make it to the field in <5 minutes. So please just slow down, tap people and say "excuse me, please, robot coming through."

I talked to several of the Robot screamers at Razorback, and I think I made a few converts to the PVT, but there was at least one team that was yelling Robot even when the aisles were completely clear.

[bEdhEd]

My drive team doesn't yell "ROBOT" anymore ever since it was considered obnoxious and unnecessary at the Sacramento Regional and the Silicon Valley Regional. We were probably the WORST offenders when we were still encouraged to yell "ROBOT." We used to yell "ROBOT" continuously when we got to queuing AND we rang a really loud bell that we had since it was the "Golden Bell Award" we got in 2009 for being an outstanding STEM program, so I know all about how ridiculous yelling "ROBOT" can be. We get through the pits fine without yelling it, but every once in a while, there's a large crowd of attendees blocking our way so we do have to yell "ROBOT" to let them know we are there, but we only have one person yell it, and not as loud as we used to. It's not really yelled, but kind of said so that it is louder that the ambient noise in the pits. I do not, however support asking every person in our path to make way. I find it inefficient. So I don't like the yelling of "ROBOT" continuously, especially when nobody is in your way, but I find that it works really well to yell "ROBOT" only when it is necessary and only if our drive team is really getting delayed. Yelling "ROBOT" when you're right behind visitors can be very startling, and when they try to clear the path, they tend to somewhat panic and try to move too fast, in turn running into other people, which I consider a serious hazard. We shouldn't get rid of yelling "ROBOT" entirely, but we should emphasize its use by being considerate with an appropriate volume, and only if it is necessary. This way of letting bystanders know that we are passing through has been working for Team 701, and we hardly ever have to yell anyway.

[JennyLeigh]

As chief Safety Captain for my team, I find it completely necessary to shout "ROBOT" At competitions.
Sometimes it gets carried away, but for the most part it's actually very helpful. It helps move things along in a quick and efficient manner, and creates a safer environment by reducing the chance of robot/human collision accidents, thus resulting in fewer injuries. Let me ask you this, would you rather keep everyone safe and reduce injuries considerably, and have to deal with a couple possible pesky chain-reaction shouts, OR Slow the movement of robots to the field, and produce a higher risk of injury to humans/robots?
I find the former option to be more appealing.

[Foster]

As a human, there is NEVER any reason for a robot to push pass me, even if it has a human in tow yelling "Robot" (*)

As an adult, there is never a reason for a robot to push past me with a child in tow that is yelling "robot" (cute grand kids included)

As a robotics mentor there is never a reason for a roboteer to push past me a cart of metal parts presuming to be a "robot" yelling "Robot".

Match times are set and clearly posted. Time management is part of the competition challenge. Once you are yelling "Robot" you have lost. Time to send a human player to the field and the rest of you to go back to the pits to figure out what you are doing wrong. No check list, no running time keeper, poor planning the work you can do in a set pit change, set up and management of pit parts, tools, layout; having a "Pit Boss" that is in charge. 100's of things to think about. Think about and fix them. Don't run me over.

Which in any case the final solution does not end up with a human roboteer going "Robot". Fix your root cause, do not push onto me your teams problems.

(*) The only reason a robot should push past me is if it has an injured human, in which case it's yelling "Injured Human, Please let us past" Oh wait that's what the EMS teams do. And I quickly move aside taking other people with me to clear the path.

[Wayne Doenges]

While at this years Championship I was going down the corridor between the arena and the pits. Some team, 30 feet behind me, was yelling "Robot" where no one was anywhere near them (except me). I turned around and asked them politely to wait until they had a reason to yell and to say "excuse me" instead.
I saw allot of teams doing this, yelling "robot" just for the sake of yelling "robot"
This is like crying wolf too many times. People ignore the warning.

[sanddrag]

At IRI, I did not hear a single team yell (or even say) "Robot!" anywhere at any time. It was so wonderful. So, that settles it. The world's best teams don't yell "Robot!"

[IndySam]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

At IRI, I did not hear a single team yell (or even say) "Robot!" anywhere at any time. It was so wonderful. So, that settles it. The world's best teams don't yell "Robot!"

What was really impressive was when you were moving your robot people would get out of your way without having to say a word. You could come up to a large group of people talking and they would just part like the red sea.

[DampRobot]

I always yell "rowboat" instead of "robot."

[jwallace15]

What cracks me up is when you're the only person in a walkway/hallway (or with a couple other people) and 3 drive team members from another team walk up and they yell robot. Ok there's three or less people, and we can clearly see your robot. Seriously. There's no need to shout. I can understand if it's in a big crowd (but, of course, something more polite other than ROBOT!) to speak loudly, but it's not necessary to yell to one person.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

At IRI, I did not hear a single team yell (or even say) "Robot!" anywhere at any time. It was so wonderful. So, that settles it. The world's best teams don't yell "Robot!"

I heard it yelled once, then proceeded by a healthy whack on the back of the head, followed by "You dummy, just say excuse me!"

(please note that he was hit by a teammate, not someone from another team)

[Justin Shelley]

I think that yelling ROBOT isn't a problem when done correctly. It's just like "excuse me please" which can be said in an extremely offensive way or it can be said politely. I personally like the yelling of ROBOT as long as the person yelling it is courteous but when they're rude it is extremely offensive because humans are more important then robots. I think this problem could be solved if people were just more polite, changing words won't change anything though.

[Akash Rastogi]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

At IRI, I did not hear a single team yell (or even say) "Robot!" anywhere at any time. It was so wonderful. So, that settles it. The world's best teams don't yell "Robot!"

It really was great. All the teams/students there were mindful enough of their surroundings and everyone just let each other know when they needed to step aside.

[Siri]

Originally Posted by DampRobot

I always yell "rowboat" instead of "robot."

We've started sort of a running bit to continually evolve what we say every time we pass certain teams/volunteers. (All spoken, not yelled.) We only do it for people we think will get a kick out of it; otherwise it's just "please excuse my robot". Scope varies by event, but IRI was great for it. We'd have conversations with random people that went literally, "Row-bot!" "Row-bot?" "Row-bot. " "Row-bot..." "Row-bot " "Row-bot. ", all the way to and "glow-tote" and "faux-moat".

As far as what's so grating about "ROBOT!", I'd argue it's both. It's not just the tone and relative volume--though that's probably the originating issue. The word itself compounds it: if someone's already being aggressive, there's an impression on condescension in the thought that others should move specifically because it's a robot, rather than because I'd like you to excuse me. It's also more terse, which doesn't help in this case.

[Foster]

Originally Posted by Akash Rastogi

It really was great. All the teams/students there were mindful enough of their surroundings and everyone just let each other know when they needed to step aside.

This. If people were more mindful of their surroundings ALL the time, things like this would not even be discussed. Remember the mindfullness takes place at BOTH ends of the robot cart.

[JohnFogarty]

I remember my first experience with someone yelling "Robot!" ...he wore a fuzzy hat and our entire team thought he kept yelling "RO-BUTT."

It got to the point where he did it even when no one was in front of him when he passed our pit, so we ended up collectively responding...."Yes, we know."