Lesson Learned 2016 - The Negative

[BoilerMentor]

Originally Posted by Alan Anderson

I don't understand how further restricting the options for bumper height would help reduce problems teams are having with bumper height.

Yeah, I'd call that an excuse. But here's an actual reason: higher bumpers give more options for ball intake mechanisms.

I suppose it does give teams more options on intakes, though the success of mechanisms operating under the bumper would be a question for me. I'm more specifically referring to the numerous situations where teams entered another team's frame perimeter and caused damage or where robots were flipped over and all the situations where these either lead to G24s appropriately, didn't lead to G24s, or lead to G24s and shouldn't have.

For a long time we've recognized in a pushing match, all things but bumper height conserved, the team with lower bumpers wins. Unfortunately, this year the possible height mismatch between one team's bumpers and another was so large and in conjunction with drive systems meant to climb things that many robots ended up on top of other robots. In this situation damage or tipping was inevitable and ultimately lead to numerous red cards over the course of the season. A simple change in constraints could have eliminated the single largest source of drama this season.