Withholding Allowance

[engunneer]

Originally Posted by marshall

They were unbagged but make no mistake they were practice robots. I'm not sure when the 30 lbs would come into play to be honest. It seems to me like that happens at load-in. I never saw those robots or components being brought into the event so I am by no means accusing anyone of anything non-GP here... just pointing out that many teams do take their practice robots to competition.

What is the purpose of bringing a unbagged practice bot to an event that can't be loaded in, and leaving it in the trailer? The only reason I can think of that isn't a big temptation to getting spare parts after load in: the trailer is the teams storage at the shop, and they don't have somewhere else to put them. I think that is unlikely to be the case for the majority of teams. I do hope they were not being used for spare parts at an event.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by engunneer

What is the purpose of bringing a unbagged practice bot to an event that can't be loaded in, and leaving it in the trailer? The only reason I can think of that isn't a big temptation to getting spare parts after load in: the trailer is the teams storage at the shop, and they don't have somewhere else to put them. I think that is unlikely to be the case for the majority of teams. I do hope they were not being used for spare parts at an event.

If the spare parts are COTS parts, what is the issue?

[Nuttyman54]

Originally Posted by engunneer

What is the purpose of bringing a unbagged practice bot to an event that can't be loaded in, and leaving it in the trailer? The only reason I can think of that isn't a big temptation to getting spare parts after load in: the trailer is the teams storage at the shop, and they don't have somewhere else to put them. I think that is unlikely to be the case for the majority of teams. I do hope they were not being used for spare parts at an event.

I will give an example that I know of: In 2012, 971 brought their practice robot to the Sacramento regional and left it at the hotel. The intent was to allow them to continue refining code overnight with a working platform. It turns out that was a VERY good decision. The competition robot was unable to connect to the field on Thursday due to some software issues. 971 proceeded to set up some version of FMS in their hotel room, with the robot until the wee hours of Friday morning debugging. They downloaded new code to the comp bot at the venue on Friday and connected. In this scenario, the practice robot and none of its parts were ever close to entering the venue, but it was a very large part of 971 being able to compete (and win) the 2012 Sacramento Regional.

In more general terms, a team may not want to pull hard-to-get-to COTS parts off of their practice robot unless they need it, but having the practice robot at the event allows them the option should the comp bot break down. As long as it's COTS, it's legal. I'm not saying this is a good idea, it will certainly invite scrutiny, but it is still legal.

It's not actually THAT unrealistic that a team's trailer is the only storage space the team has. Apex Robotics 5803 currently has a closet at our school and our trailer as dedicated store space, but we almost didn't get the closet. Finding space that a school is willing to dedicate entirely to a robotics team (even just for storage) is non-trivial.

[meg]

Originally Posted by engunneer

What is the purpose of bringing a unbagged practice bot to an event that can't be loaded in, and leaving it in the trailer? The only reason I can think of that isn't a big temptation to getting spare parts after load in: the trailer is the teams storage at the shop, and they don't have somewhere else to put them. I think that is unlikely to be the case for the majority of teams. I do hope they were not being used for spare parts at an event.

I think the biggest reason would be for the COTS parts. You don't want to pull your practice bot apart unless you have to, but also want to make sure you have spares in case things break. Best of both worlds