FRC 2006 Team Update #17

[Joe J.]

Team Update #17 has been posted:

Team Update #17

Any balls note contained within robots at the start of a match will be divided into totes located outside the alliance zone.

Dean's Homework is also listed.

[Andrew Blair]

Originally Posted by Philmont629

Any balls note contained within robots at the start of a match will be divided into totes located outside the alliance zone.

Hmmm... They already did this at Pittsburgh. Guess it was a good idea.

[akshar]

are these balls then returned to the corral after the autonomous mode is over? seems like the rule is saying you either put the balls in ur bot, or u lose them

less than 2 days till BOSTON

[Billfred]

No, you'll just have to get the balls from the tote instead of the corral when your HP wants them. (The totes were normally placed just behind the alliance station line at UCF.)

[Nuttyman54]

I think they were using this at SVR. I know they did during the practice matches

[Jack Jones]

Update #17 looks as if the GDC has tried to solve one problem but created others.

Q: How do the teams retrieve the balls form outside the zone without a high risk of stepping outside the zone?
A: Put the totes close to the line beside/behind the corral.
Q: How do we keep the human counters,field attendants, and refs from tripping over the totes?

Q: Why not put the excess balls in the garbage cans (err - High Goal Storage Units)
A: The cans were meant to hold balls - the teams are accustomed to getting them from there - the cans are already inside the alliance zone.
Good question! Why not put them there?

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by Philmont629

Any balls note contained within robots at the start of a match will be divided into totes located outside the alliance zone.

We did this in the first week at the NASA/VCU Regional. We left the original 5 balls in the corral, but any of the 30 balls leftover that were not put into robots were divided between the alliance on totes places on the line parallel to the corral. We did not have any problems with HP's stepping out because the tote was on the line.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by nukemknight

We did this in the first week at the NASA/VCU Regional. We left the original 5 balls in the corral, but any of the 30 balls leftover that were not put into robots were divided between the alliance on totes places on the line parallel to the corral. We did not have any problems with HP's stepping out because the tote was on the line.

And what about the human counter and ref who then had to work their way around a box with wings while maintaining focus everything else.

They always preach safety, but sometimes practice something else. It's crowded enough around the player's station without adding a box or two, with flaps no less, to the congestion.

All I'm saying is put the excess balls in the garbage can and put the totes the heck out of the way.

[kjohnson]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

And what about the human counter and ref who then had to work their way around a box with wings while maintaining focus everything else.

They always preach safety, but sometimes practice something else. It's crowded enough around the player's station without adding a box or two, with flaps no less, to the congestion.

All I'm saying is put the excess balls in the garbage can and put the totes the heck out of the way.

No one ever had to step over or around the totes at the side of the field. Our counters stood at the side of the goal, and for the majority of matches, so did the refs. It may be crowded inside the player station, but the totes stay right on the line where you can reach into them without having to move from the ball corral or step out of the player's station.

About putting excess balls in the can: if there is a good shooter, it can easily be filled and block up the chute which can cause scoring errors.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

And what about the human counter and ref who then had to work their way around a box with wings while maintaining focus everything else.

The human counter for the low goals stands on the sideline of the field, not the endline. Incidentally, more than once I saw him counting the balls in the corral, rather than the balls going over the light, for autonomous double-checking.

The only field attendant who would have to worry about the ball crates is the "pokey-pokey" guy. Since he's pretty stationary, it's not a problem.

Once the HP's use up the balls in the crates, they can push them back out of their way, if it was a problem.

We started using this method toward the end of the rounds at Detroit.

[AmyPrib]

At BMR we used cylindrical clothes hamper things that contained the extra balls. It worked out very well, was more compact than a plastic tote/bin, held all the excess balls nicely, and nobody tripped over anything.
It was placed on the forward most corner of each alliance station so as to stay out of the way of people, easy reach, and close to the corral as possible.

[Jack Jones]

All I know is that it's already crowded back there. As a ref I've found it hard to get from side to side (not much room at MWR - others could be better/worse) The players have to walk a tightrope when they go back and forth.

As for all the anecdotal evidence as to how it's worked out fine, I've already seen a student, who wasn't supposed to be running, take a header over something that wasn't supposed to be there. Knocked the wind out of him

[Stu Bloom]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

All I know is that it's already crowded back there. As a ref I've found it hard to get from side to side (not much room at MWR - others could be better/worse) The players have to walk a tightrope when they go back and forth.

As for all the anecdotal evidence as to how it's worked out fine, I've already seen a student, who wasn't supposed to be running, take a header over something that wasn't supposed to be there. Knocked the wind out of him

I truly think this is a "least of evils" type of situation. Putting all of the balls in the trash can would cause a very crowded situation with three HPs trying to get at them at the same time.

[dubious elise]

To elaborate on what Amy said, at BMR, we had the balls in small clothes hampers but human players were allowed to move them from place to place. Eg: if there was another human player on the same goal as myself, we would put the balls between us (behind the goal) - the person on the outside would collect balls as they were dumped into the lower goal (they needed to be removed as quickly as possible to prevent scoring errors) and the person on the inside would grab balls from the high goal trash can. Though space was somewhat limited, we didn't have much of a problem unless the coaches were wandering around in that back space. Otherwise, human players had free reign.