Warning: Don't Touch Your Robot

[archiver]

Posted by Andy Baker, Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 3/29/99 9:46 AM MST



I'm posting this message to clear up what happened during
the semifinal match between team 292's alliance (team 292:
Diamler-Chrysler Western HS, team 45: Delphi-Kokomo HS, and team
235: Diamler-Chrysler Southeastern HS) and team 71's alliance
(teams 71, 85, and 27).

During the match, 292's HP accidentally grabbed his robot's
"snout" when he was loading floppies into its basket. He
leaned toward the robot too far, and was losing his balance.
Grabbing the robot was his way of catching himself from falling.
The referee called this violation, and we were therefore DQ'ed.

In my opinion, it was the right call.

BUT, I do have some concerns:

1. I have seen other HPs accidentally touch their robots,
escpecially when loading floppies. This is incidental contact,
but it should be called. Contact such as brushing a basket's
netting and contacting the basket's "rim" while dunking
a floppy are both violations.

2. If a team is DQ'ed, then they should be powered down ASAP.
This may seem minor, but it isn't. During this match, the
power was not disabled, and therefore we didn't know of the
violation. There was some major battling (us vs. 71 for puck
control and 292 vs. 27 for raising floppies) occuring AFTER
the violation occured. Luckily neither 71's or 27's robots
were damaged during this time, or the mistake would have been
monumental. Actually 71 fell over at the end, but since
their robot is so robust, they took the fall with no problems
(at least none that I know of).... Also, many students (and
adults) on our alliance had a very tough time adjusting to the
disqualification, escpecilly after we thought we had won the
match and semi-final round. Handling those emotions was very
tough. It would've been easier to deal with if 292's robot was
powered down and we hadn't thought that our alliance won the match.

Anyway, those are my thoughts... any opinions on this?

All in all, we had a great time working with all of the
teams at the Midwest Regional, especially teams 292 and 235
(You guys ROCK!).

See ya in Florida!
Andy B.

BTW, team 292... a rookie team! Wow!