YMTC: Redabot Loads Ten Tetras Without Moving

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by TLonghorns0593

Sorry i guess i was thinking of the pinning rule while posting but
<G17> A ROBOT that has received a TETRA may not collect another TETRA until it leaves and then re-enters
the LOADING ZONE. A violation will result in a 10-point penalty, and the TETRA will not be SCORED.
The way I interpret that is you have to back up off of the loading zone and then re-enter. I don't think that just removing the object that touches the zone would count. I guess it will be up to the interpretaion of the judges to decide what is leaving the zone.

The problem, as has been discussed exhaustively elsewhere, is that as things stand just removing your "foot" does count as leaving the zone. This leaves the robot in reach of the loading station and the attendant if they decide to place a tetra. This is not safe and subverts the apparent intent of an otherwise reasonable rule <G17>.

So what we have is one rule that kind of makes sense, undermining in a very real way a second rule that makes all kinds of sense. In addition, the undermining rule has been shown to be difficult to enforce fairly, because the refs can not always see whether a team is in compliance or not. Often the team themselves might not be able to tell whether they are "in the zone" or not. [Note to self] new strategy, block opponents view of triangle and hope they rack up lots of penalties, maybe use that "Kingman cloth" from 2003? [/End Note]

[Kims Robot]

I think by the rules, this is a legal "move from the zone", however, as pointed out, if it is not easy to tell that the foot has been lifted, the attendant may never know. I think it is safest for a team to retract the arm and back up at least a foot so that the attendant knows something has changed.

I think the most important thing with these fuzzy rules(ie a lot of these YMTC rules), is that whatever the judges rule, or however the game starts, it remains consistant. Looking at this redabot example, if redabot were allowed to load in this manner on the red alliance, and then switched to the blue alliance in the next QM, and the blue autoloader attendant did not know about this team's "foot" idea, it may cause some issues when the bot goes to load as part of the blue alliance...

Has anyone submitted this exact question to FIRST to get their take on it?