Flipping Rule

[cbale2000]

Originally Posted by dtengineering

While I tend to agree with this sentiment to a certain extent, I can also see a very uniform message being delivered by referees at different events... "Don't tip robots."

It is very much like the hockey rule for high sticking where you are responsible for your stick. If it hits someone in the face... even if they weren't wearing a face shield, and even if you didn't mean to... heck, even if you didn't know you did it... you get the penalty. It's your stick, and it's your job to look after it.

If these calls had all gone the other way, and the rulings were "you can tip robots so long as you make it look like you weren't really trying to tip them", then I can see defensive strategies being devised to take advantage of this.

I totally get what you are saying... but congratulate the refs for sending a very clear message. Don't tip robots. You will be held responsible if you do. Even if you didn't really mean to. Just. Don't. Tip. Robots.

Jason

The difference though is that unlike Hockey, you don't always know where your robot is or what it's interacting with (or, for that matter, have control of it). A robot isn't physically attached to you, unlike a hockey stick (unless you're doing something stupid like throwing the hockey stick).

I guess my argument would be that teams in this years game aught to be perfectly capable of designing robots that don't tip when legally defended (unlike in 2010 where the bumper rules basically caused virtually any sustained robot-to-robot contact to result in one or both bots tipping). If the team is, to a reasonably astute observer not maliciously trying to tip the other robot, and not violating any other rules, the refs should not be automatically giving out cards.


Actually I find this topic somewhat similar to back in 2014 when people were complaining about defense being to rough and robot damage. I'm sorry, but if you don't want your frame crushed in during a game with a completely open playing field, don't build it out of <1/16" aluminum (or skipping an outer frame altogether and just using bumpers as the frame, like several teams did). A little common sense would go a long way for solving many of these issues.