Pre-Game rules

[Demothesis]

Do you get to choose where you place your robot, and do the referees move your robot prior to the start of the game? This is important for our team's autonomous section, if you hadn't guessed.

Demothesis

[Joe J.]

You place your robot, but after all the robots are placed the refs move the rack.

[Swampdude]

Are you allowed to touch your controls after they move the rack?

[Joe J.]

I'm not sure on that but I'm guessing that will depend on how soon the match will start but most likely not.

Also to update my last post If you use an alignment device to position your robot then the refs will move your robot

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Demothesis

Do you get to choose where you place your robot, and do the referees move your robot prior to the start of the game? This is important for our team's autonomous section, if you hadn't guessed.

If you use an external alignment device (e.g. a tape measure not part of the robot), the head referee may arbitrarily reposition your robot. Otherwise, yes, you may choose any position in the home zone with the long dimension upward and the orange indicator light visible from the front (i.e. pointed downfield, toward the rack).

In elimination rounds, the higher-seeded alliance will be allowed to have the last opportunity to orient their robots (according to <T16>). There's a little bit of confusion as to how this is supposed to apply in qualification matches. Per this Q&A response, FIRST says that teams are not seeded until the qualifying round is complete, and therefore <T16> doesn't apply to qualifying matches. However, section 9.3.3 says that "[t]he scoring system will use the combination of qualifying score and ranking score to continuously determine the seeding of teams during the qualification matches." Furthermore, 9.3.10 supports this by describing the seeding algorithm and stating that "[a]ll teams in attendance will be seeded during the qualification matches." These portions of the rules imply that seeding varies continuously during the qualifying matches (i.e. <T16> must be applied in all matches, because the rule doesn't specify different procedures for qualifying and elimination matches). Note also that the rules don't specify a procedure for determining the higher-seeded alliance during qualifying (highest-seeded alliance member, sum of alliance members' seedings, or some other method), probably because whoever wrote this rule intended it to apply in the eliminations only (where alliance captains are defined), but did not specify that condition in the rule itself.

As a practical matter, the list of rankings wasn't conveniently available to the head referee in the past (it would require changing screens on the scoring system, which wasn't always feasible in the Hatch system, especially if the big-screen A/V feed was connected to the second monitor). If that situation continues, it won't be easy for the referees and field supervisor to find out who is higher-ranked, and inform the alliances.

[akshar]

for elims, highest seed would just go by who is seeded in the beginning....however....
if 1 v 8 and wins....does this make 8 the highest seeded team?

[BorisTheBlade]

Originally Posted by Swampdude

Are you allowed to touch your controls after they move the rack?

I would have to say no seeing as the whole idea behind moving the rack is to get teams to work on autonomous and not just use dead reckoning. anyone can make a robot dead reckon with next to no thought or work. but its more of a challenge and a learning experience to build code to make a robot think on its own and adjust to the surroundings in order to score points.

[Demothesis]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

If you use an external alignment device (e.g. a tape measure not part of the robot), the head referee may arbitrarily reposition your robot. Otherwise, yes, you may choose any position in the home zone with the long dimension upward and the orange indicator light visible from the front (i.e. pointed downfield, toward the rack).

Thanks. Come to think of it, it seems I remember a rule something like this from the Kick-Off - especially the part about the tape measure and the rack.

Other than that, is there any guarantee that the referee will not reposition your robot if you DO NOT use an external alignment device?

Demothesis

[Spider-Man]

Originally Posted by Demothesis

Other than that, is there any guarantee that the referee will not reposition your robot if you DO NOT use an external alignment device?

Yes, the refs have no authority to move your robot if it is legally placed in the home zone without external alignment devices. The rack will be shifted and rotated after all team members from each alliance are behind the tape for autonomous.

[Demothesis]

All right ... Thanks a lot for the definitive answer.

Demothesis