Hardcore Auto Warning

[Amy33Amy33]

Noticing that at Lake Superior that some autonomouses hit the wall so hard that it knocks the drivers station off the table. There was a round where it happened to us and it cost us about 20 seconds at the begining of the match. Be aware of that at your regionals.

[CalTran]

I would like to point out to teams that, while normally your driveteam should never jump the line during autonomous, G15 does have a clause stating "during AUTO, DRIVE TEAM members in the CASTLE may not contact anything in front of the STARTING LINE, unless for personal or equipment safety."
If your operator console is falling, you have every right to leap forward and catch it.

[Roger]

One match at Merrimack Week Zero a robot banged the Driver Station wall so hard the E-Stop button dropped and e-stopped a robot. Guess they forgot to velcro them down?

[EmileH]

Simple fix: use the rough side of the velcro that's in the driver stations to prevent exactly that

[Jalerre]

This happened several times at Palmetto my team included. I highly recommend velcroing your driver station to the shelf.

[GeeTwo]

OK, I'm curious. I think I've read about as many firsthand and witnessed driver station unseats in three days of 2016 competition than in my browsing of the whole history of Chief Delphi over the past sixteen months. Is this a 2016 strategy, perhaps designed to humble two years of "bumper rookies", or is there some other reason that ramming the alliance castle wall is a reasonable thing to do this year?

[cgmv123]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

Is this a 2016 strategy, perhaps designed to humble two years of "bumper rookies", or is there some other reason that ramming the alliance castle wall is a reasonable thing to do this year?

It's just a consequence of the structure of autonomous. Teams don't think they need to bother setting different autonomous modes for each defense, so they just set the robots to go full power for several seconds to ensure they cross. If they cross with time to spare, the extra time is spent crossing the courtyard. And if they cross the courtyard at full speed with time to spare...

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by cgmv123

It's just a consequence of the structure of autonomous. Teams don't think they need to bother setting different autonomous modes for each defense, so they just set the robots to go full power for several seconds to ensure they cross. If they cross with time to spare, the extra time is spent crossing the courtyard. And if they cross the courtyard at full speed with time to spare...

I think this is exactly what is happening. And I think there should be consequences.

IMHO these incidents should be dealt with in a manner similar to G24 violations; i.e., foul and yellow card, red card if it causes incapacitation. Lazy auto programming should not be rewarded.

In years past, the equivalent of G24 included the language "not in the spirit of the FIRST Robotic Competition." Ramming the opposing castle wall is exactly that: not in the spirit. My answer to Gus's question is, no this is not a reasonable thing to do.

[Fauge7]

Originally Posted by Richard Wallace

Lazy auto programming should not be rewarded.

I agree, HOWEVER whatever works you know?

[sanddrag]

It's almost as if the field should have a standard form bumper.

[FrankJ]

Put bigger bumpers on the robot?