60 second set-up / pack-up time?

[LeelandS]

Originally Posted by MrJohnston

In the rules, it says that drive teams must set up their robots from transport configuration before each match and pack it back into transport configuration quickly. "60 seconds" is given as a "guideline."

With all the very creative/innovative/complicated robots we are seeing in reveal videos, I am starting to wonder how many of them are going to be able to do that? Do we have any idea how strictly referees are going call the 60-second guideline? I know we made some design decisions with that guideline in mind, but I wonder if some others did not? Or at least hope to abide by the time limit rather loosely?

While I doubt we will be seeing referees with a stop watch counting down 60 seconds, I would expect most field team members would want to act like they are. Maybe some will be.

It has always been in the rules that delaying the competition in one way or another with result in penalties. It's in the rules that delaying a match AT ITS CONCLUSION (i.e. delaying field reset) may result in a yellow card. I would be surprised if delaying the start of a match didn't have similar results.

The referees have a schedule to maintain. Quick match cycles make for a much smoother event. No one, be it teams, volunteers or spectators, want to sit there and watch you assemble your robot. If you have a 62 second set-up time I would be expecting referees to be breathing down your neck, but remember, you are keeping people waiting.

Personally, we did everything we could to fit in the transport config. Our current bagged robot fits in the transport configuration with no assembly required. It's faster, and we we don't need to worry about forgetting to do anything aside from turn the robot on (which, historically, I have a bad track record with anyway). When we get to FLR, I dunno. Maybe that'll change. But sizing and set-up requirements I believe should have been part of every team's design choice.