[FRC Blog] FRC Expands Regionals to Four Days

[sanddrag]

Now Frank, will you PLEASE consider directing local regionals to allow teams to set up their pit areas during load-in night? It is SO much safer and easier than in the rush of things on the first morning. To be blunt, the existing schedule and limitation on setup is stupid.

We load in all our stuff Wednesday night, completely filling the 10x10 area, then Thursday morning we move it ALL out of the 10x10 area completely, blocking the aisle and getting in the way of numerous people, and then assemble back into our pit area piece by piece properly. While the pit setup is taking place, we usually move the robot to a vacant hallway or other area to prepare it for inspection. It's a very disruptive process to all parties in attendance, and we take up 3 pit areas worth of space doing it.

Just let us set up the pit on load-in night when hardly anybody is there.

[Boe]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Now Frank, will you PLEASE consider directing local regionals to allow teams to set up their pit areas during load-in night? It is SO much safer and easier than in the rush of things on the first morning. To be blunt, the existing schedule and limitation on setup is stupid.

^ Please Frank

[orangemoore]

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

[Kingland093]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

We're not allowed to unbag our robots until Thursday anyway, why shouldn't we be allowed to just set up our pit?

[cad321]

Originally Posted by orangemoore

The reason that has been explained to me that they don't allow pit set up is not all teams are able to make it to the competition venue until practice day (Thursday). It gives the teams that are there the night before possibly a very large time advantage which is not fair to the other teams. I wish that setting up the night before was a possibility but at this point it wouldn't be fair.

If the event dates include the load in day as a fourth day, than it is hardly an unfair advantage. It is another day of the competition that teams can choose whether or not this is something they wish to take advantage of or not. I fail to see how a scheduled day of the event is leading to an unfair advantage to certain teams.

[madhav]

I have now gone into cardiac arrest.

[sanddrag]

With the current set up restrictions, we actually are at somewhat of a competitive disadvantage compared to teams with a minimal amount of "stuff" they bring to their pit. We bring everything we could ever need, and everything we own that our partners or any other team could ever need. We know many teams are not well equipped, so we like to be, not only for our benefit but also for theirs. Also, we like for the pit area to be a showplace, not a haphazard work - on - the - floor trainwreck like 80+% of them are. It takes some time to put this all together. While it may give us an advantage in judged awards, it's most certainly a disadvantage on the field because we are still setting up the pit when teams with less stuff are passed on inspection and out practicing.

And on the topic of practice, Frank, why the heck do we close the field SO early on practice day? It kills us for a perfectly good Field to be sitting right there, and not being able to use it past 4PM or whatever it is when practice day goes until 8PM. We pay an aweful lot to just stand around and look at an empty field Thursday night.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

And on the topic of practice, Frank, why the heck do we close the field SO early on practice day? It kills us for a perfectly good Field to be sitting right there, and not being able to use it past 4PM or whatever it is when practice day goes until 8PM. We pay an aweful lot to just stand around and look at an empty field Thursday night.

I completely agree. I understand it could make a long day for volunteers, but I'd much rather see 3v3 matches going until 7PM than the same handful of teams doing 1v1 matches at 10am. Just shift the schedule back.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I completely agree. I understand it could make a long day for volunteers, but I'd much rather see 3v3 matches going until 7PM than the same handful of teams doing 1v1 matches at 10am. Just shift the schedule back.

I'd even settle for 2 teams at a time, for 4 minutes, from a filler line, to do whatever they want on the field. Doesn't even have to be matches. Most venues cannot accommodate a proper practice field and the late PM when everyone needs it is when everyone is ready for it and crowding it, and the real one is there, but closed.

[Jon Stratis]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

And on the topic of practice, Frank, why the heck do we close the field SO early on practice day? It kills us for a perfectly good Field to be sitting right there, and not being able to use it past 4PM or whatever it is when practice day goes until 8PM. We pay an aweful lot to just stand around and look at an empty field Thursday night.

Originally Posted by XaulZan11

I completely agree. I understand it could make a long day for volunteers, but I'd much rather see 3v3 matches going until 7PM than the same handful of teams doing 1v1 matches at 10am. Just shift the schedule back.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I'd even settle for 2 teams at a time, for 4 minutes, from a filler line, to do whatever they want on the field. Doesn't even have to be matches. Most venues cannot accommodate a proper practice field and the late PM when everyone needs it is when everyone is ready for it and crowding it, and the real one is there, but closed.

Aside from volunteer time, a big issue is inspections. Believe it or not, there are usually 1/3 or more of teams that haven't passed inspection yet when the field closes (and sometimes teams that haven't even started yet!). Teams spend the whole first day doing work on their robot that didn't get done before it was bagged up and playing on the field... they just don't prioritize inspections. I honestly worry about giving teams more time on the field so they could put off inspections even later, causing a situation where we couldn't possibly get them all inspected before their first match.

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by Jon Stratis

Aside from volunteer time, a big issue is inspections. Believe it or not, there are usually 1/3 or more of teams that haven't passed inspection yet when the field closes (and sometimes teams that haven't even started yet!). Teams spend the whole first day doing work on their robot that didn't get done before it was bagged up and playing on the field... they just don't prioritize inspections. I honestly worry about giving teams more time on the field so they could put off inspections even later, causing a situation where we couldn't possibly get them all inspected before their first match.

We already require a preliminary safety inspection to get on the field at all. I think most of us would be fine with a "must fully pass inspection to practice on the real field after 4PM" type of requirement. Problem solved, and it brings another new incentive to get inspected sooner than the morning of qualifiers.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We already require a preliminary safety inspection to get on the field at all. I think most of us would be fine with a "must fully pass inspection to practice on the real field after 4PM" type of requirement. Problem solved, and it brings another new incentive to get inspected sooner than the morning of qualifiers.

I agree, pits should be allowed to be setup during load in and practice field should be open after 4pm. We don't even need there to be matches we could run them like the practice field with one or two volunteers and teams just getting 5 mins each to drive their robot around. The full practice field at IRI is my dream for every event.

[MrTechCenter]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

We already require a preliminary safety inspection to get on the field at all. I think most of us would be fine with a "must fully pass inspection to practice on the real field after 4PM" type of requirement. Problem solved, and it brings another new incentive to get inspected sooner than the morning of qualifiers.

I agree. This would allow more teams to get the practice/testing they need. And it would probably make the early Friday matches more entertaining too, as they're usually quite dull and often there are dead robots on the field early-on. We don't even stay at our local regional after the main field closes because we know we're going to have to wait a very long time to be able to use the practice field for a few minutes and it's never worth it in our opinion.

[Mr. Mike]

We at the Innovators decided early on that the pit would remain simple. 2 rolling work benches and our robot cart. The only loose items are 2 tubs with scouting in one and outreach in the other. The goal is to roll into the pit and in 10 minutes we are capable of working on the robot. After competition is over we can be also be out in the same time frame.

Adding another day of work is not something I would like to see.

[EricH]

I think there's a couple of things with the setup of pit and the field being open. I'll try to address those briefly. And NEITHER is what you'd expect.

Pit setup: I'm not concerned as much about competitive advantage here. There are a couple of reasons why setting up the pit is, or could be, not allowed, and a couple of items I'd like to point out.

#1: Verification that you're NOT working on your robot. Yeah, I realize that there's the bag and all that, but here's the thing. Inspectors are typically a skeleton crew on load-in. You've got maybe 5 or six inspectors going over bags and checking to make sure nobody's taking advantage of that green tag being on the bag to do a little early work. That, and once people start working, it's VERY difficult to get them to STOP working. Have you guys who are asking to be allowed to set up ever even TRIED to get the entire pit area cleared for ceremonies or end of day on Thursday or Friday? I'm not talking about just your team, I'm talking about clearing the entire pit area so you can go home and get some sleep before beating the teams in the next day. It's not as easy as it sounds. If you haven't, please contact your volunteer coordinator and ask if you can volunteer at pit admin.

#2: Some of the "It takes so long because everything has to be set up" might be mitigated by better planning. 973 has a beautiful setup: they bring everything in, drop it off, it's already just about in position--what's more, they can bring it out to the field if needed in a matter of moments. I suspect that some careful planning of the "what is packed where and deposited where" may be in order for speedy setup. Or maybe bringing less stuff into the venue--there aren't restrictions on tools and COTS items being stored outside and brought in as needed, last I checked. (That doesn't hold true for fabricated items under last year's rules, mind you.)



As far as the fields go, there are potentially a number of reasons. As noted, one is inspection. Inspectors want to see your robot at inspection early. (As an unrelated side note, I'd be in favor of allowing teams onto the field only once with just a safety inspection; anything after that with a minimum of partial, or a pass from inspection/FTA to try to get field connection.)

But there are others. One is field wear and tear and repair. Even on practice day, there can be damage to the field that needs to be repaired. Also, there is a huge cushion left in case of major problems, which you'd rather have fixed on practice day. And we can't forget the fatigue factor, both on the mechanical parts of the robots and on the humans manning the field. That four hours is a great time for the field crews to meet up out of sight and evaluate anything that needs to be evaluated, as well as connect any robots that haven't connected yet.




That said, I have a compromise proposal on both counts. For the pits: All the setup you want, but you get exactly one trip per early window, make it count. (Translation: 1 trip during night-before load-in, one during early-bird.) One bonus trip during either window for helping any two other teams carry items in, not extendable past one trip regardless of number of teams helped. For the field: Extend the field open hours by two hours, for any teams that have passed inspection OR that need to work on communication problems, on a filler-line basis (comm issues take priority). The caveat here is that because your team is so prepared as to require this extra practice time, your team will of course also have team members volunteering to help the inspectors and technical staff eliminate rules non-conformance and comm problems and field issues of all types, unless of course you do not want to take the field during this time. (BTW, that "volunteering" isn't exactly volunteering. It's more of "You look like you're not busy, come help us fix this ziptie/carpet tape/comm issue/oversized robot/etc."

For those that can't detect mild sarcasm, or a side of snark, the above proposal isn't exactly serious. But if folks will insist on rules changing to accommodate their bending of rules, may as well change them so they are required to help out other teams who work within the current rules, no?