Driving Clockwise Inside a Quadrant

[Jherbie53]

It might be that there are afraid of crossing a line, but I believe that they thought and think its easier to go around a lap than fight traffic. Most teams are going to keep moving in the CCW direction. Most of the traffic jams happened right as you cross into the other lane. You would get one or two robots either going after a track ball or setting up for a hurdle, and just about everyone would either wait about 3-4 seconds or there would be enough room to get by on the inside by the lane divider. Thats all I'm going to say.

P.S. I'm really tired or my eyes are not adjusted yet, because I was using "lain" instead of "lane" and was thinking, "thats not right. That L supposed to be capitalized."

[Jeff Waegelin]

We found in our practice sessions at home, and at BAE last week, that it was often easier to just go around and make another lap than to try and chase the trackball backwards. Half the time, when we'd go back for it, we'd bump it and send it across the line, and have to make the full lap anyways.

[Alex Golec]

Originally Posted by Jeff Waegelin

We found in our practice sessions at home, and at BAE last week, that it was often easier to just go around and make another lap than to try and chase the trackball backwards. Half the time, when we'd go back for it, we'd bump it and send it across the line, and have to make the full lap anyways.

I saw some of this occuring at St. Louis as well - the coordination required to turn around WITH an arm / appendage / etc sticking out is greater than expected, especially with 5 robots making laps around you.

Perhaps as time progresses, drivers may eventually become adept at this maneuver.

-Alex

[Mark McLeod]

Originally Posted by Jherbie53

P.S. I'm really tired or my eyes are not adjusted yet, because I was using "lain" instead of "lane" and was thinking, "thats not right. That L supposed to be capitalized."

Looks fine to me, but then I'm Scottish and have a son named Iain...

[bigbeezy]

As a driver, granted I havn't had a chance to drive super competitively this year, but as many of you have stated it is far easier and less time consuming to drive around and pick it up on the second pass. Like in previous years, lots of times it is easier to go get another scoring item (or drive around) than taking tons of time turning around and risking a penalty. There is no penalty for driving counter-clockwise.

[Betty_Krocker]

because at that point (even more so the rookies) the drivers arent thinking about it. i know today during practice, we were more concerned about how pieces were falling off of us and how we were being pushed around the track by another team. do honestly hinesight is always 20 20 but most people cant think that fast...

[hillale]

often times, i know with us as it is with many teams, it doesn't take much time to make a lap anyways. that plus the potential of a 10 point penalty/waste of time make it much more worthwile to complete a lap and grab the ball head-on.