Removal of Low Bar Fabric

[Nick Lawrence]

Today at the Greater Toronto Central Regional, the Field Stewards elected to remove the fabric and lower pipe from the Low Bar defense, keeping the upper frame of it on the field. They seemed to remove it after all of the flaps became too damaged for match play.

Thoughts?

-Nick

[nickbrickmaster]

Were there problems with boulders going through the low bar? How was this dealt with?

[FrankJ]

Not that surprising if you think about it. With the allowed extensions, the leading edge of the robot is not necessarily the bumper It will be interesting to see what First decides to do about this. Requiring more scrutiny of robot sharp edges is one possibility. Changing the Aluminum pipe out with a lead pipe is another. (admittedly not likely.)

This is proving to be a hard game to the field elements.

[marshall]

Originally Posted by FrankJ

This is proving to be a hard game to the field elements.

And to robots!

[Tim Sharp]

Originally Posted by nickbrickmaster

Were there problems with boulders going through the low bar? How was this dealt with?

They said it would be a penalty if the teams strategically tried to roll a boulder under the low bar from the HP station. If it was not intentional, play will continue.

[EricLeifermann]

Originally Posted by Tim Sharp

They said it would be a penalty if the teams strategically tried to roll a boulder under the low bar from the HP station. If it was not intentional, play will continue.

Can't change the field and then add a rule that doesn't exist.

[Tim Sharp]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Can't change the field and then add a rule that doesn't exist.

They appear to be trying to do just that. I was just quoting what they said on the webcast a few minutes ago.

[PayneTrain]

Originally Posted by marshall

And to robots!

And my emotional stamina.

[XaulZan11]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Can't change the field and then add a rule that doesn't exist.

Well, after they basically allow every match to have a field fault, I guess they can do whatever they want...

I want to see a team request a match they lose to be replayed citing the field did not meet specs.

[KrazyCarl92]

I think 1/16" thick polycarbonate sheet hanging from the Low Bar may better satisfy the design criteria for the fabric than the fabric does.

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92

I think 1/16" thick polycarbonate sheet hanging from the Low Bar may better satisfy the design criteria for the fabric than the fabric does.

Hanging from rings?

[Foster]

Originally Posted by KrazyCarl92

I think 1/16" thick polycarbonate sheet hanging from the Low Bar may better satisfy the design criteria for the fabric than the fabric does.

May have been at kickoff, but now a 15" x 30 chunk of polycarb flipping up and over into a robot would be a very unpleasant change. I can see where teams anticipated a 6 oz pipe going across the top of there robot, but not the polycarb. If the polycarb gets jammed into the robot that can be a bad thing.

Not sure what the fix is, but polycarb sheet isn't it.

Maybe flaps/ vertical strips of plastic like you see on commercial freezer doors to allow entrance and egress, That would let the robot pass but stop the boulders. The strips would stay attached. They would need to run tests on entanglement.

[alectronic]

Originally Posted by EricLeifermann

Can't change the field and then add a rule that doesn't exist.

What exactly do you suggest they do? Seems like they can do what they want when they have to.

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by Foster

Not sure what the fix is, but polycarb sheet isn't it.

Maybe flaps/ vertical strips of plastic like you see on commercial freezer doors to allow entrance and egress, That would let the robot pass but stop the boulders. The strips would stay attached. They would need to run tests on entanglement.

We used a flap of foam board as a low bar cover in our testing and it survived, but probably wouldn't last an entire competition.

Personally, I'd like to see a beaded curtain so robots can recreate the Britney Spears Oops!... I Did it Again artwork, but I would settle for plastic strips. ����

[g_sawchuk]

I have been watching the event for the majority of the day, and I've seen, on several instances, boulders and the low bar interact in such a way that provides concerning circumstances.
1. Robots driving onto boulders, under the low bar. It can cause a bit of a jam, as well as damage to the robot if they are going to fast.
2. Boulders rolling through. The human player station aligns with the low bar, and with a normal toss, the ball can easily get onto the outerworks, or even past it.
I'm curious to see how they deal with this, as not only does this raise scores by, in some occasions, having easier access to boulders, it also makes penalties in regards to boulders going over quite questionable.