Destructive Air Tank Testing

[ToddF]

Originally Posted by JamesCH95

When someone else's choice puts an innocent bystander (in this case refs, human players, announcers, emcees, the audience, etc) at risk, that's when I start to have a problem.

That's why the uncalled G28 penalties are so upsetting. The risk with these tanks isn't that they will fail under normal circumstances. It's that they will fail when damaged by another robot. This is NEVER supposed to happen. It is against the rules to deliberately touch another robot inside their frame perimeter. If the tanks are mounted inside a robot's frame perimeter, they should be completely safe. Unfortunately, the style of game this year has resulted in a lot of people just shrugging their shoulders and accepting repeated G28 violations has "just part of the game", or "accidental, not deliberate".

I contend that these G28 violations are just as accidental as when a drunk driver gets behind the wheel and "accidentally" kills someone. When they get behind the wheel, the drunk driver assumes responsibility for the results of that action. Similarly, a team who drives a robot around the field with appendages hanging over their bumpers should be FULLY ACCOUNTABLE for the penalties which result. I knew we were heading down a slippery slope when the game design committee legitimized bad behavior by changing the rules to allow robots to extend outside the field. Rather than penalizing teams creating a safety hazard, they made it acceptable for teams to drive around with their appendages hanging out. This has led to the current culture of defenders choosing to extend their appendages, ram them into other robots, and cause damage, then saying "Whoops. It was an accident."

As we see from these tests, not enforcing the rules can have serious consequences. It's not just the air tanks that are a possible hazard. The batteries we use are just plastic boxes that contain acid. There are wires in the robot that when shorted together can cause fires. There are SAFETY reasons why G28 exists. Teams should be living in desperate fear of touching another robot inside their perimeters, and the penalties this would incur. This year, starting with the rule change allowing robots to extend outside the field, we've been more and more accepting of safety violations. I, for one, think this is a bad thing.