On Rules, Referees, and Rewards (aka Penalties)

[Steve W]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

Section_4-The_Game:
4.3.2 Safety
<S01> If at any time the ROBOT operation is deemed unsafe, by the determination of the referees, the ROBOT
will be disabled for the remainder of the match.

We disagree with your opinion that a tetra swinging over the glass and back is not a safety issue. The swinging back part is after the fact; it became unsafe when it cleared the glass, as evidenced by a number of people getting boinked.

So what are we to do? If we wait for one to fall, it's too late. If we wait until it scares one of us, then which one. Some of us just don't scare easy.

It is often the case that the best way out of a bad situation is to try and not get into one. That's one reason for the interpretation. Another is that it's just not right when one one end of the field gets a team disabled and the other doesn't because the ref at one is timid and the other fearless.

The call is as easy for the teams to accept as it is to enforce; it either brakes the plane, or it doesn't. The result is that teams slow down and carry the tetra lower.

Jack, I will not get into a verbal war with you. I will contend that any robot that has any part of it go over, under or around the edge of the playing field is a safety hazzard. The people at risk are volunteers but it is no less unsafe. I also cotend that a tetra that is 95% below the glass and has 5%, the top point, break the plane is in no way unsafe for anyone. Don't come back to me and say that it doesn't happen because I was there and saw it. I also contend that any robot enering a loading zone is a safety issue when there is a human player right there going to, loading, or exiting the zone right next to the robot entering. I just believe that this is another issue that referees are trying to control the game. As refs they need to becausious to follow the rules and be wise in the implimentation of them. With the loading zone rules there is refs discression on wether there is a penalty or not. This should also be the case with safety and the "breaking the plane" which is a rule that the refs brought in without any FIRST official update. They did make an update when they changed the size of the loading zone so why not with this one.

Basically I say let the kids play and unless there is a safety issue, don't shut the kids down. BTW the only time I saw people hit by tetras over the glass there was no shut down. I also saw no robots that pushed the "offending" robot disabled when they were the ones responsible for the infraction.