Suggestions for resolving stuck balls

[jee7s]

Originally Posted by jvriezen

Any ball coming to rest on the truss is also declared dead immediately.

That's potentially problematic. Say this scenario occurs and the new ball is introduced. But, at a later time the ball on the truss then experiences an outside force (another ball, a vibration, a strong breeze) and ceases to be at rest. Then the ball falls onto the floor and there are two balls of that color in play. How do you know which is the legal ball?

I'd say a nice beveled or round plastic cover for the truss that prevents the ball from being at rest on it is a safer bet. It removes the possibility of the second ball being introduced, it's cheap, and it's easy to design.

IMHO, any scenario that results in a second ball being introduced to the field without the existing ball being removed or obviously non-functional (deflated, etc) places too much of a burden on the field personnel and alliance members for tracking which ball is live.

[themccannman]

Originally Posted by jee7s

That's potentially problematic. Say this scenario occurs and the new ball is introduced. But, at a later time the ball on the truss then experiences an outside force (another ball, a vibration, a strong breeze) and ceases to be at rest. Then the ball falls onto the floor and there are two balls of that color in play. How do you know which is the legal ball?

I'd say a nice beveled or round plastic cover for the truss that prevents the ball from being at rest on it is a safer bet. It removes the possibility of the second ball being introduced, it's cheap, and it's easy to design.

IMHO, any scenario that results in a second ball being introduced to the field without the existing ball being removed or obviously non-functional (deflated, etc) places too much of a burden on the field personnel and alliance members for tracking which ball is live.

I like this idea for the truss issue.

My suggestion for stalled/disabled/non-functional robots:

If there is a disabled robot on the field that controls their alliance's only ball that team may attempt to reconnect to their robot or dislodge the ball for a certain amount of time (e.g. 10-20 seconds). If the time expires and the robot is still non-funcitonal the refs will hit the e-stop on that robot and declare the ball as field debris at which point a new ball may be entered in to play.

If the ball later becomes dislodged from the robot I would just restart the game at that point. I doubt it would be a very common occurrence that a robot would get disabled with an alliance ball in possession, their teammates were unable to dislodge the ball, and then they later drop the ball during the match.

[RallyJeff]

Originally Posted by jee7s

That's potentially problematic. Say this scenario occurs and the new ball is introduced. But, at a later time the ball on the truss then experiences an outside force (another ball, a vibration, a strong breeze) and ceases to be at rest. Then the ball falls onto the floor and there are two balls of that color in play. How do you know which is the legal ball?

FYI - G35 already creates the potential for one "debris" ball and one "legal" ball of the same colour on the field at the same time:

G35
BALLS may only be retrieved from the PEDESTAL and only if the PEDESTAL is lit in the ALLIANCE’s color.

Violation: TECHNICAL FOUL. If the BALL is entered into the FIELD, a second TECHNICAL FOUL and the BALL is considered FIELD debris.

[Trez]

I say tough toe nails if a ball gets stuck in a robot. My team has had alliance mates hit our robot and disrupt shooting during Reboundrumble. A ball could get stuck after a score has been made. So unless the ball is stuck from the start it's not a hopeless problem.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by Trez

I say tough toe nails if a ball gets stuck in a robot. My team has had alliance mates hit our robot and disrupt shooting during Reboundrumble. A ball could get stuck after a score has been made. So unless the ball is stuck from the start it's not a hopeless problem.

My only issue with this is you getting a ball stuck did not hinder the rest of your team from being able to score in the previous games like Rebound Rumble or Ultimate Ascent. When there is only one game piece in play and it gets stuck in a robot that effects the teams that you were randomly paired up with more than it would if there were other game pieces they could continue the game with. By placing another ball into play it will basically have the same effect on the game that it would have had if there were multiple balls in play, the team with the stuck ball becomes pretty useless but the other teams are not stuck with a pointless game for the rest of the match.