[FRC Blog] Frank Answers Fridays: December 5, 2014

[Hallry]

Posted on the FRC Blog, 12/5/14: http://www.usfirst.org/roboticsprogr...idays-12052014

Frank Answers Fridays: December 5, 2014

Blog Date: Friday, December 5, 2014 - 09:19

Today’s good question comes from Chris Picone, from FRC Team 2791, Shaker Robotics, from Latham, New York, USA:

Question:

Hi Frank,

I'm Chris Picone, currently a mentor for FIRST FRC Team 2791, Shaker Robotics, from Latham, NY. My question today is about when practice matches are scheduled at regional events.

The scheduling of events on Practice Day at regionals has always bothered me. Using the Finger Lakes Regional agenda as an example, Practice Day runs from 8:30 AM to 8:00 PM. Practice matches are scheduled from 10 AM to 4:30 PM with an hour break for lunch, allowing teams 5.5 hours to play these matches. Teams then have from 4:30 PM until 8 to do whatever they need.

I believe this current system has a lot of problems. First, the practice matches before noon are extremely under-utilized. Even for teams whom are finished with their robot, the process of setting up a pit, testing everything, and getting pre-inspected often takes a while. Expecting teams to make a match beginning just 90 minutes after they first have access to their robot is quite a high bar. As a result, the practice matches from 10-12 barely even happen, and when they do there are never more than two robots on the field.

After lunch, the situation is usually a little bit better. However, inspectors rightfully encourage teams to get fully inspected as soon as they can. This is something my team has done and we have missed practice matches to meet this goal before. Even with a complete or nearly complete robot, by getting inspected early we have trouble making more than a single scheduled practice match in a day.

Once matches are over, teams that are "done" and inspected can do essentially nothing. The practice field is usually already fully booked at this point, and since robot operation in the pits is quite limited, all of the extra time of practice day just goes to waste. The only teams who benefit from this time are teams who are not done finishing their robots, and these teams would miss their practice matches no matter when they were scheduled.

I believe if we changed the current system to have practice matches from 12:30 PM to 6 PM, with the possible addition of an inspection requirement, practice day would be better for everyone. Inspectors would be happy as teams no longer have an incentive to push inspections off. Teams with finished or mostly finished robots would have four hours to get their pits and robots in order before they have to practice. Teams without finished robots would actually have a chance of testing their robot if they work quickly enough. All teams would enjoy the benefits of a practice match with more partners and opponents to play with. Volunteers would be needed for the same amount of time as they would be with the old schedule (5.5 hours), so their commitment would not grow. Finally, there would be far less "wasted time" at the end of the day where teams are done but can't do anything since the practice field is closed. To me, it seems like a win-win situation for all parties involved.

I guess this is less of a question and more of a suggestion - my apologies for that. If there are other factors in play influencing the practice match schedule, or if there are good reasons why this idea isn't feasible, I'd love to hear about them. I know setting up something as complex and large scale as a FIRST competition is never easy, and perhaps there are factors in play not obvious to participants that make things work this way. All that said, I believe a change like this would greatly increase team competitiveness, improve the quality of matches, and help prevent the end-of-day "inspection rush".

Thank you for your time and consideration

Answer:

Hi Chris. Great suggestion. Consider it done.

We’ve actually had a team of staffers, volunteers, and event management professionals looking at this issue since September. The team was led by Collin Fultz, FRC Team Advocate. Just this week we got mostly positive feedback on the plan from the Regional Directors, which was the last element we were looking for before moving forward.

We recognized this as a problem. I’ve been to many Regionals at which the greatest place and time to take a nap was on the field at 10AM on Thursday, when practice matches were supposed to be starting but teams weren’t ready. Not the teams’ fault – there’s just much to do that first morning at a Regional. Scheduling practice matches well before most teams are ready is a waste of resources, as you point out.

You may wonder why we needed a cross-functional team to look at this, rather than the FRC staff just saying ‘go’. As you speculated, when we start shifting schedules around, we experience a cascade effect. Volunteers need to work different or longer hours, meal needs may change, and some other planned activities may need to be moved. Event schedules are a network of gears – hard to shift one without affecting the others in some way.

But, the good news is we’re making this change for the 2015 season. At Regional events, practice rounds will run without planned interruption from 12:00PM to 6:30PM. (Hey, that’s an hour longer than you asked for! Sweet.) The lunch break will be scheduled before this time. The plan is to have scheduled practice rounds until 5:30PM, and open field practice from 5:30 to 6:30. During scheduled rounds, as in the past, teams are assigned specific practice slots and may practice during those times even if they have not passed inspection. A filler line will continue to be available during that time, only for teams that have fully passed inspection. The hour of open field practice at the end of the day is only for teams that have fully passed inspection. Here’s the message: please focus on passing inspection, so you can maximize your practice time!

There may be some minor variation in this schedule between events, but this will be the standard schedule.

Frank

Frank Answers Fridays is a weekly-ish blog feature where I’ll be answering ‘good questions’ from the FRC community. You can e-mail your questions to goodfrcquestion@usfirst.org. Please include your name, team number and where you’re from, which will be shared, if selected.

[notmattlythgoe]

Beautiful!

[Caleb Sykes]

Great change, I'm really excited to see this implemented in the future.

[PayneTrain]

[sanddrag]

Chris Picone, you are my hero!

I submitted the following way back on August 7th but it was never responded to until now. You put the same idea in more detailed words. Thank you my friend.

I'm glad they've acted on my second paragraph. This is a positive change that is years overdue. Now, howabout the load-in issue? What do you say FIRST?

Originally Posted by me

Hello Frank,

My question is about three related issues at regional events: load-in, pit setup, and practice time. Currently, teams are permitted to load in equipment on the evening prior to practice day, but it traditionally has been a "drop it and leave" type of affair. The trouble is, come the morning of practice day, teams are then un-loading everything they placed within their pit boundaries the previous evening, into the aisles, in order set up their pit areas. It creates a crowded unsafe situation, and a lot of havoc, especially when teams are rushing to get inspected and make it onto the practice field. Why not let teams set up their pit areas on the evening of load-in?

And as the second part of my question, why is the official field closed and off limits on the evening of practice day, when teams need it the most, and the pit area is open until 8PM? Would it not make for better qualifying matches if every team was afforded ample practice or testing time (until say 7PM) on the real competition field? Current practice fields do not nearly meet the demand at most venues after scheduled official practice ends.

Thank you.

[MARS_James]

This is great news to hear, as it also allows for more of a chance to let new field team members learn their roles before official matches start, so this year hopefully we won't have a human player run up to a robot and forget to take the ball off the pedestal

[Koko Ed]

As a Lead Que I am glad for the change. I HATE Thursdays at FIRST events with a passion. The mornings are a complete waste of time for volunteers as we're just sitting around waiting for teams to show up and I never understood why they close the field down at 4:30 when the pits are open til 8. I say let them play until it's time to go home.
I would also like to see them do away with the schedule. It's stupid and adds stress to the volunteers who often have to scramble to put teams on and off the field because if it (if a scheduled team comes stumbling up late but has already been replaced by a fill in we have to kick the fill in out to put the latecomer in thus delaying the match further). It's much easier to roll teams to the back of the line and build matches (ala IRI) than it is to work around a useless schedule.

[Karthik]

This is something I've been asking about for years! Thanks to Frank, Collin, and everyone else who pushed for this change and worked to implement it. This will be a huge improvement for both teams and volunteers.

[TylerStaudigel]

Are the pits still going to be open in the morning for teams to setup and hopefully finish their robots?

[Jessica Boucher]

When Collin asked me to help on this, I literally screamed at my desk because I was so excited we were planning on fixing something I had a problem with all the way back to my student days.

Ed, I know I gave my opinions with your shoes in mind, as well as helping the LRIs who were on the call as well. I personally feel the schedule is important as it preps new teams for the process of getting on the field before actual matches begin. That's not to say it can't be tweaked to better utilize our resources, but if you want more to do on Thursday morning we can totally make that happen.

[notmattlythgoe]

Originally Posted by TylerStaudigel

Are the pits still going to be open in the morning for teams to setup and hopefully finish their robots?

I would imagine nothing changes except the times the field is open to robots.

[mastachyra]

Someone give him a Woodie Flowers Award!!!

[Nemo]

Awesome change. This makes so much sense. Thanks to everybody who caused sense to happen.

[Tom Bottiglieri]

Seems like a really positive change. Good job.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by Koko Ed

As a Lead Que I am glad for the change. I HATE Thursdays at FIRST events with a passion. The mornings are a complete waste of time for volunteers as we're just sitting around waiting for teams to show up and I never understood why they close the field down at 4:30 when the pits are open til 8. I say let them play until it's time to go home.
I would also like to see them do away with the schedule. It's stupid and adds stress to the volunteers who often have to scramble to put teams on and off the field because if it (if a scheduled team comes stumbling up late but has already been replaced by a fill in we have to kick the fill in out to put the latecomer in thus delaying the match further). It's much easier to roll teams to the back of the line and build matches (ala IRI) than it is to work around a useless schedule.

Overall a good change, I'd be happier to see Ed's system fully implemented but this is far better than doing nothing. Thanks Frank, Collin, and everyone else that worked on this.