Breaching sally port by throwing it open

[TimTheGreat]

In the rule book it says to breach a defense you must start not touching it in the neutral zone. So is it legal to back into the sally port and make it open far enough so the entire robot isn't touching it, then go right back through?

Same for the drawbridge. We have arms that extend down. Can we drive through the drawbridge, go off of it (no robot touching) then have the arms immediately come down to hold it down?

Basically, does the defense have to be in its natural resting phase when a robot starts 'breaching' it?

[Whippet]

This is legal, but with the referees having to pay attention to many defenses at once, in addition to robots scoring boulders and the various human player actions, you will want to make sure it is abundantly clear that you are doing this legally, and probably talk to the head ref before the match to make sure they are aware that you will be employing this strategy.

[JacobD]

I think this is a viable strategy for crossing defenses quickly. But, the hassle of ensuring that you receive the proper points for each crossing is frankly annoying. A team doesn't want to waste time going through the opposite sides of defenses if they aren't scoring. Also, talking to the refs before a match is even worse because you might cause delays to the match start and you would have to tell each ref before all of the matches you will play all season.

[GeeTwo]

There were several Q&As, and all of them said pretty much the same thing as Whippet. You have to disengage and re-engage with enough of an interval to attract a ref's attention. Several have suggested an annoying or at least distracting light or sound display to get the refs to look; sounds like a marginal strategy. 3946 decided rather early that category C (drawbridge and sally port) was the defense we were going to leave on the table for a "solo breach", especially as easy as it is to cross and damage with cooperation between even cockroach* robots.

* Cockroach is 3946 for robots with a working drive system and nothing (or at least not much) more.

[AllenGregoryIV]

Originally Posted by JacobD

Also, talking to the refs before a match is even worse because you might cause delays to the match start and you would have to tell each ref before all of the matches you will play all season.

Match cycles are almost never under 6-7 mins that means at least 4 mins of time between matches. Most of the time it's acceptable for one member of your drive team to talk to a referee or two during that time. I often try to talk to the field volunteers and make sure I thank them for volunteering and let them know anything we might be doing in that match if it's questionable or something they should pay attention too. They don't have to listen but building a report with field personnel at events is a good thing. Once you do it for your first couple matches you rarely need to remind them again.

Also, if enough teams start doing it, refs will just learn to look for it, like the human player bounce back inbound passes of 2014.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by JacobD

I think this is a viable strategy for crossing defenses quickly. But, the hassle of ensuring that you receive the proper points for each crossing is frankly annoying. A team doesn't want to waste time going through the opposite sides of defenses if they aren't scoring. Also, talking to the refs before a match is even worse because you might cause delays to the match start and you would have to tell each ref before all of the matches you will play all season.

What is the question box for then? If we get a student to stand in it long enough do you think they'll give him free water bottles from the volunteer hospitality room so he'll go away?

[EricH]

Originally Posted by JacobD

Also, talking to the refs before a match is even worse because you might cause delays to the match start and you would have to tell each ref before all of the matches you will play all season.

Just to pile on a little bit here:

Have you never heard of practice matches? You know, they aren't just for the teams to practice. What do you think the refs are doing? You talk to one ref before your first practice match. That ref passes the word around to check your robot crossing a defense that way. Happens more often than you might think.

[Chak]

I like to call this specific action "tapping", ie. "Our robot can tap the sally port". It's a short abbreviation of a long description. Anyone else have a name for it?

[Whippet]

Originally Posted by Chak

I like to call this specific action "tapping", ie. "Our robot can tap the sally port". It's a short abbreviation of a long description. Anyone else have a name for it?

I've ben calling it a reverse breach, but think tap is far more concise.