Regarding <G13> - placement of the tetra by the human player.

[Leav]

Regarding <G13>, may a human player place a scoring tetra on a robot so that it is only leaning against the robot, and a part of the tetra is touching the floor? more specificly: what is regarded as "on the robot"?

Q&A database id:1428

anyone care to enlighten me as to the answer, since it would seem that they haven't answered this yet.....

this could change a lot of things on our robot....

-Leav

[Cory]

If you want my entirely worthless opinion (since none of us know what FIRST is going to say, and we're no authorities on the subject. Except Dave), "On" means exactly that. On the robot. Not touching the floor. If they meant "touching" the robot, one would assume they would have changed "on" to "touching"

$0.02

[Kyle]

that is a tricky question, referring to Cory's post I don't know the real FIRST answer. I think that if you gripper or arm or what ever has a resting stage at the floor when power is off and you place a tetra on it and the tetra is touching the floor then it is still ok as long as the arm/gripper is still supporting it. Thats just a guess but I hope its the right one.

[dhitchco]

It's been previously proven that the "optimal" place to get a tetra is from the auto-load station preferred over the human-load station; see other threads.

That being stated, the auto-load station is "X" inches off the floor. Why then would you want to add to the robot complexity by introducing a "new" position to some other height than what is already programmed in for the auto-load pick-up height.

Also, a floor-height pick-up position simply makes the human player do that much more work (bending, etc). It also introduces the risk that the human player (in bending over the field border) may also mistakenly come into contact with the robot (a rule violation)

[Swampdude]

Unless a team built their robot precariously to receive only human player tetras - I can't see the use in the human player. You can get almost twice as many tets from the auto loaders in a given time span. Then as you said compounding the penalty risk of touching the bot. The standing still time factor while becoming an easier target. I don't understand why they handicapped the human player so bad. The only way I can see salvaging the usefulness of the HP is if they let them load (2) tets at a time. Otherwise these HP's will simply help push the bot's to/from the field and focus on NOT getting off that pad.

Just my opinion...

[dhitchco]

SwampDude,
you've got it exactly right. The BIGGEST risk in the entire game will be to make sure that the human players do NOT move off the pad(s).

This will require real ORCHESTRATION from the driver and/or coach to "flag" the human players as to when it's "safe" to get off the pad.

Namely, I think that the human players should face AWAY from the field, grasping their pile of tetras, and ONLY turn around once the driver has signaled that the robot is FULLY in the loading station. If the HP leaves prematurely, you're cooked.

Lastly, I still think that the robot should "accept" a tetra from the HP at the SAME height/orientation that gets used at the auto-load station. The robot will ONLY go down to floor level if it is going after a visual tetra (during auto period) or if the robot is placing a tetra under a goal (which only gains one point).

So, personally IMHO, I'd have a robot that could ONLY have two heights (pick-up/load height, and an "adjustable" goal-top height)

[MattB703]

Originally Posted by dhitchco

... Why then would you want to add to the robot complexity by introducing a "new" position to some other height than what is already programmed in for the auto-load pick-up height.
...

The only reason that I can think of is if you can place the tetra higher up in your robot assembly and therefore end up with the ability to lift a tetra higher than you could if you picked it off the auto load station.

[Steve W]

The rule states that the human player can put the tetra " on or in " the robot. Since there is no mention of " on the floor " you can bet that the same rule applies as at the start of the game. The tetra cannot be placed such that it is touching the ground or rail. If it falls off that is okay but if deemed intentional there could be a penalty.

My $00.02