YMTC - No battery plugged-in

[Ryan M.]

I feel that, although it stinks for blue, it was their fault. It's too bad that things like that happen sometimes.

--EDIT--
Oh, yeah, Ken. At least at the Pittsburg regional, the ref didn't make any obvious checks on the robots. Come to think of it, that is kind of weird.

[Venkatesh]

Personally, I would have held a rematch. So much effort went into a robot and getting it to the finals. There is not as much of a time problem in the finals. Rematches are quite possible.

As a side note, in 2003, team 30 had a small checklist attached to the robot, which reminded people to do the critical tasks to get the robot ready for a match at the last second. I don't know whether it was because of the list or the experience of the team members last year, but we never missed an item on the list.

[MisterX]

Forgetting to plug in the battery is no different then forgetting to screw in the radio feed and there is no redo for that. It is just a tough break for that team and the final score is the final score with no redo. But hey that is one mistake you typically only make once so I would hope that team doen't have to worry about it again

[dlavery]

The field controllers (not the refs) check for signal and communications continuity before every match. They verify that every RC on the field is transmitting and has valid carrier. Matches do not start until they can get good signal (to avoid claims of "field problems" causing a team to lose). So if a battery were not connected, in theory the field controllers would not start the match because they would not get signal from the RC.

That said, it is ultimately the team's responsibility to make sure that their robot is ready to play when it is put on the field. It is not the responsibility of the refs, judges or field controllers. So if the team forgets to connect the battery on the robot, and is somehow manages to slip through the field checks, the team is still responsible. This is exactly the same as if they had forgotten to close the dump valve on their pneumatics system, and could not use their pneumatics - it is the team's fault. The only stated rationale for a re-match is a field fault. There is no problem with the field in this scenario, so there is no justification for a re-match. Red wins, and you move on.

-dave