Penalty Points at Regionals?

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by Eric Bareiss

Watching the VCU regional, 90% of the penalties are from robots entering the ball corrals.

I watched a bunch of matches and it looks like even if they don't enter the corrals but it kinda looks like they might, they throw a flag. Seems like there's at least one in every match. They are being very strict.

I think that we'll be seeing less penalties soon, for one of two reasons...
1.) The referees loosen up slightly
2.) Drivers learn what, exactly, they need to avoid doing.

[dlavery]

Originally Posted by IMDWalrus

I think that we'll be seeing less penalties soon, for one of two reasons...
1.) The referees loosen up slightly
2.) Drivers learn what, exactly, they need to avoid doing.

Forget #1, but count on #2.

Do not count on the referees loosening up on the rules/penalties concerning robots entering the ball corrals. This rule is related to the physical safety of the team members, and is designed to prevent the potential for robot-human contact. FIRST will not lighten up on this.

However, every year we see noticeable improvements in driver skill and abilities from week to week. They drivers (and all other team members) will be improving as they get more practical experience with the game and with driving in a realistic game environment. That experience will result in fewer penalties, as they make fewer mistakes.

-dave

[KenWittlief]

hopefully the word will get out after this weekend - if your bot is designed to push or deliver balls into the corral, you need to make sure that side of the bot is high enough so you CANT drive it through the opening

expecting the driver to see that well over the edge of the wall is unreasonable

expecting the driver to get right up to the edge of the corral opening and not nudge over the line is asking too much

the dimensions of the corral opening are in the field description - hopefull this will not be an issue after these 1st round of games.

[Pierson]

Everything that has been said above is true.

We competed at Portland (PNW) and Andy Baker led a fine team of refs. Though I did not watch every match, it seemed like 1 in 10 (matches) had a penalty. It also seemed that those matches which had one flag, normally had multiple flags.