Mad Dash for the Controls?

[Rick]

FIRST should put these signs EVERYWHERE around the player station. Gotta watch out for those trippy lines on the ground.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

Is thee any way to install an e-"start" button that can be hit by a judge to engage the joystics and switches? Some sort of extra port with 3 serial connectors on the feilds that we loop our connectors into when we hook up our controllers before the match. Maybe this would be a little much, but am i thinking in the right direction????

[SkitzoSmurf]

I'm sorry, but I have to agree with Rick. two steps and ur there, come on please, do u know how non risky that is. This is like saying that you are runnign this risk of death or bodily harm 10 times worse just crossing the street, lol. OCme on everyone, this wont be an issue. And funny sign rick, real funny.

[Ian W.]

not to be mean to anyone, but think about every waking moment in your life. i'm sure you've all managed to do something exceptionally stupid, like tripping when walking a distance of three feet. it's human nature. unless you're a perfect being (and i haven't seen any of those), you will make mistakes. hopefully, it won't be during a competition. but i've seen people, me included, trip over their own two feet when excited. hmm, robots, driving robots, and thousands of screaming people. i'd say i'd be excited.

once again, i must press the issue of physically handicapped people. they will not be able to launch themselves through the air in a matter or milliseconds like everyone else claims they will be able to do. how is this fair? simple, it isn't. as i said before also, another rule (i forget the number) states that all drivers must be standing on the floor. so my team member can't legally use a wheelchair either. of course, as i said before too, she is quite stubborn, and would probably much rather NOT use a wheelchair on the playing field.

bring in the fact that the E-Stop button has been more or less taken off-limits by severe penalties, i don't think there will be any problems. if there indeed is, well, that team can be DQ'd or something. don't punish everyone for the immaturity of a few.

[Nate Smith]

Originally posted by Ian W.
as i said before also, another rule (i forget the number) states that all drivers must be standing on the floor. so my team member can't legally use a wheelchair either.

http://hyperrules.chiefdelphi.com/ru...php?number=gm6

Special clothing and/or equipment will only be allowed on the playing field for those who demonstrate a need based on a physical disability.

They have also said that a ramp would be available if necessary for drive team members to access the playing field. The intent of the "standing on the floor" rule is to head off those teams who try to find a loophole in the rules to allow them to put one drive team member on another's shoulders for increased visibility.

[evulish]

Hmm. Does the rule state you have to be 3' behind the players station? If so, how long is the players station? 4ft? 3' isn't that big of a deal...but 7' might be more of a hazard.

[DaBruteForceGuy]

Guys, i just don't see the point in this 4 ft thing. First pretty much solved the problem with the E-Stop button. Gracious Professionalism (u know somebody was going to say it) should take it from there. There is no reason for this three foot rule, it's just overkill. And, it presents a problem with those who are physically impaired. It's just a shame that it has to come to this, i know... but don't ruin it for everybody because afew people were finding sleezy loopholes in the rules.
And i am going to say it again, we don't want to have a "special circumstance" for those who are handicaped. Especially for such an unnecessary rule such as this.

I'm sick right now, but I'm not waiting to get this off my chest...

Out of these several pages of posts, the only people with any valid arguments are the people from 810. The handicapped rule should be dealt with accordingly and that should be the end of it. Dave Lavery is right, this isn't a competition of engineers this year, its a competition of Lawyers. They are rules and moaning about them is not going to do anything. Deal with it.

[Sean_330]

I totally agree with what DJ said. This competetion is about science and engineering, not about loopholes in the rules. The rules that FIRST has provide for exceptions such as for handicapped people. When FIRST designed the game this year, I have a feeling they had no idea how many people would try to circumvent the rules. People need to accept the fact that rules are rules. If everyone was able to go around the rules, what kind of even competetion would FIRST be? It would be a competetion of who is most able to go around the rules and the victorious teams would not always be the most skilled team, but instead the team most able to circumvent the rules. That is neither gracious nor professional.

Furthermore, all the people who say that FIRST is not being graciously professional by making this rule need to realize that the rule was made necessary by some ungracious actions on part of the team members. The fact is if the people participating in FIRST had been gracious and professional by respecting the rules and not trying to find any possible way around them, this rule would not exist and therefore we would not be having this debate. So before you get upset, realize that FIRST does not make rules just for the sake of making rules but makes the rules they do to make the events as fair as possible to all teams and not just the teams that can avoid the rules on a technicallity.

[hixofthehood]

I think when the autonomous period is over, they should fire a gun into the air as all the drivers take off to make one step towards the controls.

But seriously, after reading all these posts, I think that while this rule has good intentions, it unfairly causes problems for drivers with form-fitting controls and for handicapped drivers. I personally think that custom controls are really, really cool, and I wish we had some. Now they are rendered completely useless. There must be a way around this.

FIRST should make their reasonings for this rule clear, and they should try to find any way at all to avoid keeping it in place.

[ahecht]

Originally posted by rust710
To me this whole line of rules makes absoulutly no since because the OI is will not send or the RC won't accept any input from the drivers so what is the point of making the drivers stand back?

First off, during the Human Player period, the robot is disabled, and therefore can recieve data from the OI (although all PWM and Relay outputs are disabled).

Second, as has been discussed here before, during Autonomous mode, 2 bits (user mode on/off and one of the channel select switches on/off) can be sent to the robot by dishonest teams.

I predict that a future rule update will specify that drivers cannot touch the controlls (as 3 feet is an easy reach if you lean forward).