Petition to end the shouting of ROBOT

[Libby K]

I apologize for bumping this thread and probably starting another circular discussion, but here goes.

This weekend was my first gig at my new job - representing United Therapeutics as a sponsor of teams. I traveled to the Orlando Regional with some coworkers (and my boss!) to see our sponsored teams play, and to give our FL employees a chance to see FIRST up close so they could get connected with the program.

We were walking through the pit, excited to meet one of our "Team UniTher" teams up close, and a volunteer yelled robot, right in our ears. Okay, one bad apple shouldn't spoil the bunch, right?

It was an absolute epidemic. Every time someone's robot was on a cart I could hear students screaming. Not even in the "pardon me, robot coming through!" way. These students were outright rude, and absolutely not at all self-aware about how unnecessary it was. I've (unfortunately) become pretty immune to the senseless yelling, but my coworkers were certainly not.

It was a really quick way of alienating potential volunteers, mentors, and sponsors. I came in with enthusiastic people, and they left the pit with a bad taste in their mouth. It's one thing to have a safe aisleway to move your robot, but entirely another to be so obnoxious that you alienate spectators who, minutes earlier, were jumping out of their seats to go see the robots up close.

I'm not trying to knock this one regional in particular, or its teams, because we had a fantastic time overall - but it was the first time I've really noticed how off-putting it is to those who don't just blindly accept safety theater as safety culture.

Again, stop yelling robot. A simple "Excuse me, heads up, robot coming through" in an indoor voice will suffice. Your robot is not more important than the humans in the room.

[cglrcng]

The yelling of "ROBOT" should properly cease in the name of lower decible range hearing safety, and each Robot Cart for the 2015 FIRST FRC season should be equipped w/ a mild sound system playing a nice fairly quiet melody of "Ice Cream Truck Music"...As everyone who has ever purchased a sweet cool treat from one of those sweet musical trucks knows....Everyone pays attention to Ice Cream Trucks, most always look toward the sweet sound of the melody, or at least look for where that "sweet sweets music" is coming from anyway.

Just imagine whole venue competition pit areas filled w/ nothing but the soft sounds of drilling, sawing, some mild hammering...and lots of sweet pleasant Ice Cream Truck Melodies! (Of course the really slick thing is to have an Ice Cooler onboard too, and actually sell the sweet treats as an additional fundraising outlet, on the way to & from the field too! With both venue permission, and a valid local Health Dept. Permit of course).

[alicen]

Originally Posted by Libby K

It was an absolute epidemic. Every time someone's robot was on a cart I could hear students screaming. Not even in the "pardon me, robot coming through!" way. These students were outright rude, and absolutely not at all self-aware about how unnecessary it was.

This.

I was at the Orlando Regional as well, volunteering as an inspector. I could hear robots in the far opposite side of the pits "coming through".

There was one instance where I was going back to the pit with a team to do their inspection that really struck me. The Orlando pits were super crowded with narrow aisles and lots of people standing around pit entrances. The team I was following was yelling ROBOT, and when they hit a crowd they couldn't move (the people were faced away from them) they continued to yell ROBOT at the back of their heads until someone noticed and turned around. I couldn't believe it.

For the most part, if you tap one person on the shoulder and say, "Excuse me, robot coming through" they tend to get the rest of their party out of the way quickly as well. They're not trying to be in your way.

[Alan Anderson]

In Kokomo this weekend I twice gently corrected two people who inappropriately shouted ROBOT. One was in his team's pit as their robot departed; another was actually sitting up on a set of bleachers against the wall. I told each of them that people shouldn't be warning others of an oncoming robot unless they are walking in front of that robot, because otherwise they are taking attention away from where it needs to be.

A few people on one team did consistently call out ROBOT in a loud-but-not-yelling voice as their robot was in transit, which was mildly annoying. However, they were one of the few teams that consistently had a vanguard clearing the way for their cart, and it didn't seem to be a contagious yell, so I didn't make an effort to find the source and ask them to take it down another notch.

[sanddrag]

Things were rather quiet in Los Angeles this year. I think I only heard two teams say "Robot!" all weekend, and it was at a medium volume in a manner which was not at all disruptive or rude. It was really nice to see this prior issue resolved at this event.

I suppose at this point in time I should move on to other worthwhile efforts such as starting a petition to end the playing of the chicken dance song....

[FRCmediaMan]

I have to agree, especially when we have the general public coming in to view and see what these events are.

[mrnoble]

Utah had a couple of teams that wouldn't shut up. We had a great time overall, and yes, it's good to let people know there's a robot behind them by saying "excuse me", but after 11 years it is getting really old. A new one this year: students from one team twice nearly punched me in the nose with a small bag of "safety materials" while shouting "In the Spirit of Safety!"

[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Originally Posted by cglrcng

The yelling of "ROBOT" should properly cease in the name of lower decible range hearing safety, and each Robot Cart for the 2015 FIRST FRC season should be equipped w/ a mild sound system playing a nice fairly quiet melody of "Ice Cream Truck Music"...As everyone who has ever purchased a sweet cool treat from one of those sweet musical trucks knows....Everyone pays attention to Ice Cream Trucks, most always look toward the sweet sound of the melody...

It's so silly it just might work...

Might try this over the summer.

[Alyssa]

If we really do want people to stop yelling "ROBOT," there needs to be a system in place to keep people out of the walkways and have their conversations elsewhere. It's really difficult to have to walk around to the front of your cart to tell someone, "Excuse me, I need to get through here with my robot." I agree yelling "ROBOT" can be rude, however, the real problem needs to be addressed.

[dodar]

Originally Posted by alyssa2485

If we really do want people to stop yelling "ROBOT," there needs to be a system in place to keep people out of the walkways and have their conversations elsewhere. It's really difficult to have to walk around to the front of your cart to tell someone, "Excuse me, I need to get through here with my robot." I agree yelling "ROBOT" can be rude, however, the real problem needs to be addressed.

Its not that difficult actually. Just always have someone out front like 2-3ft from the cart loudly, but not necessarily yelling, saying "excuse us" or "look out".

[Kpchem]

Originally Posted by alyssa2485

If we really do want people to stop yelling "ROBOT," there needs to be a system in place to keep people out of the walkways and have their conversations elsewhere. It's really difficult to have to walk around to the front of your cart to tell someone, "Excuse me, I need to get through here with my robot." I agree yelling "ROBOT" can be rude, however, the real problem needs to be addressed.

With all due respect, there is a better system. You talk about it being difficult to have to walk around your cart, could you instead have someone else on your team walking in front of the cart doing just that?

I'm not going to say that there isn't over-congestion in the pits, because there definitely is sometimes. But the solution should isn't being rude to them until they decide to leave.

[Koko Ed]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

I suppose at this point in time I should move on to other worthwhile efforts such as starting a petition to end the playing of the chicken dance song....

This is a cause I can get behind!

[Libby K]

Originally Posted by alyssa2485

If we really do want people to stop yelling "ROBOT," there needs to be a system in place to keep people out of the walkways and have their conversations elsewhere. It's really difficult to have to walk around to the front of your cart to tell someone, "Excuse me, I need to get through here with my robot." I agree yelling "ROBOT" can be rude, however, the real problem needs to be addressed.

You have four people on the drive team that are a part of the robot's transport out to the queue - one's pushing the cart, another holding the controls. That leaves you two, and you can use at least one of them to help clear the pathway.

Think of it this way:

.....................Person 1
....................... / \
..................[__Robot_]
...Person 2? [__Cart__ ] Person 3?
................. [ _______ ]
....................Person 4

Person 4 is pushing the cart. Person 2/3 can maintain space around the sides of the cart (if they're not holding something cumbersome like the control board), and can fall back behind the cart when there's not much room.

Person 1, in front, can be saying things (in a medium-strength-indoor-voice) like "Excuse us, robot coming through!" "Heads up!", when it's necessary. That is not rude.

What is rude is the teams who feel they have to scream ROBOT! at the top of their lungs every five feet because 'it's the way to be safe', even when aisleways are clear. As Alan said, it takes attention away from somewhere else, where there may actually be an issue.

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Libby K

You have four people on the drive team that are a part of the robot's transport out to the queue - one's pushing the cart, another holding the controls. That leaves you two, and you can use at least one of them to help clear the pathway.

This is plausible in the ideal case where other teams aren't crowded around their own pits. At Champs and most Regionals I've been to, the all-sides entourage works most of the time. Yet even shouting robot doesn't work when people in the pits aren't paying attention because they're focused on their own pit.

In Pittsburgh, even with team 48 shouting 'robot' for everyone, and me saying excuse me while leading the cart, there were still people with their backs to the aisle who would jump out into the aisle without looking. We got some nasty looks, as if to say "why aren't you shouting robot?". In my head my gut reaction was 'Natural Selection suggests we shouldn't blindly sprint in the pits' (bad, I know...) but I after a minute I simply understood why many teams feel compelled to shout it. The kid who jumped tripped on the cart and caught himself. It could have been much more catastrophic had he been a second later, jumping on the robot and hurting himself and/or causing the robot to fall off the other side of the cart. We could fault someone for not paying attention to the 'robot' shouting, or fault 48 for causing people to tune out the 'robot' shouting, or fault me for saying excuse me rather than shouting it, or ... whatever.

Point is, I don't know if there's a catch-all for this.

[Woody910]

At the Palmetto Regional, I know I personally got told by the green shirts that "When the robots moving, your mouth should be moving." And was asked to keep yelling robot. Even though it seems extremely unnecessary to me, I was asked to do so.