Problems with autoloader

[[527]phil]

We'll first off we didn't get any penalties while using the autoloader. But during our second to last match one of the FIRST volunteers decided not to restock the autoloader because he was staring into space. This not only cost us time, but the match. Has anyone else had problems like this?

[nightrenegade00]

I can't say we have had any problems like that since we decided to scrap our auto loading idea after the second practice round at the UTC scrimmage. We've been using the human player zone all the time and haven't gotten any penalties. The human players make sure they get any bugs out during the practice rounds to be perfect during qualifiers and finals. You will probably find some people who will have this problem. The volunteers are people and people make mistakes. However they are a factor in whether an alliance wins or loses a match. The volunteers and refs need to remember that although its supposed to be fun, its still a competition.

-Crash

[shamuwong]

I've experienced a few incidents where we would go to the autoloader, and the field reset staff would place the tetra on the loader wrong and it would fall off, usually onto the loading area triangle. This would effectively disable that loading zone unless I pulled some fancy maneuvering that would have wasted even more time.

[Justin]

As someone who worked the Autoloader station at the UTC regional in CT I can say that this concern weighed heavily on my mind. While I wouldn't say the pressure was enormous I was aware that I was an active participant in the match and could if I spaced affect the match. I tried to take this very seriously and I think I was slow on the station maybe twice the whole regional. The last thing I wanted was to effect the outcome of some teams match adversely. I think that it depends a lot on the history of the person who runs this station as to how seriously they take it. I know that I worked with people who had been on teams and who were just there volunteering. My sense is that those who had been on teams in the past and were really serious about FIRST were aware of this responsibility to a greater extent than those who had not been. I can say that it was a lot of fun and is one of the best seats at any venue. You are as close to the action as you could possibly be. For someone who's been around for a while with was a unique privilege for me.

Justin

[danield710]

that happened to us once during practice matches, where my borhter (abed), a former member of our team was a volunteer who did the autoload station and he forgot the load the station because he was lookin at our robot on the other side of the field, and the drivers were screaming at him for like 10 seconds

[abeD]

That wasn't me!! It was the guy next to me....but in any case there was a case where someone did forget to load a station during a qual match and they were approached and asked if they wanted a rematch. (They declined)

[Ryan Dognaux]

The only problems I have seen with the autoloaders are when they get pulled over by the robots using them. This happened at Purdue and I think that loader was gone for the match.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by danield710

that happened to us once during practice matches, where my borhter (abed), a former member of our team was a volunteer who did the autoload station and he forgot the load the station because he was lookin at our robot on the other side of the field, and the drivers were screaming at him for like 10 seconds

Your brother's innocent. But, although it's OK to work practice matches, a volunteer should recuse themself from all matches that involve a team to which they are affilated. It's best to sit it out, to include the entire eliminations, than to give even a hint of a conflict of interests.

[abeD]

In eliminiations I had to sit out some of the matches they were in (I had a backup right there with me) because I didn't want to be watching something on the other side of the field and forget to put a tetra on (I did do all the qual. matches and didnt have any problems). The swampthing, pink, and bionic tiger alliance gave some of my co-volunteers on the red side much more work than what we ever had on the blue! (oh and I don't think we ever ran out of tetras on either the auto load or the hp zones)

on a side note: I saw at least 20 tetras break during the course of the regional. This included many VT's. If any of you were watching the practice matches you might have seen some with only one real Vision tetra and one regular one.

[Jack Jones]

Originally Posted by abeD

In eliminiations I had to sit out some of the matches they were in (I had a backup right there with me) because I didn't want to be watching something on the other side of the field and forget to put a tetra on (I did do all the qual. matches and didnt have any problems).

Consider this: Supposed something happened, whether real or imagined, that caused your team to win a Q-match, or caused their most feared upcoming opponent in the eliminations to loose. How would you or the field reps. convince them that you were impartial when they had reason to suspect otherwise. You most likely can't convince them. The best way to get out of that situation is to not get yourself into it.

[abeD]

Originally Posted by Jack Jones

Consider this: Supposed something happened, whether real or imagined, that caused your team to win a Q-match, or caused their most feared upcoming opponent in the eliminations to loose. How would you or the field reps. convince them that you were impartial when they had reason to suspect otherwise. You most likely can't convince them. The best way to get out of that situation is to not get yourself into it.

I mean...there is very little that an autoloader who is being as fair as possible can do to influence the outcome of the match. After a while you get into a rythm with the speed and distance that you feel comfortable with at putting tetras on the station. Alo consider the fact that many of the volunteers are alumni of teams or parents of kids on teams so it it happens sometimes that your old team or current team could be on the field. One of my old team's mentors was actually worried about me being up there and my lil' brother driving at the same time, but after a couple of matches it was very clear that there was no problem.

[kjohnson]

In one of the qualifying matches at VCU (I was driving, red side) I picked up a tetra from the loader, backed away and placed it on a goal. The volunteer was so busy watching our robot that he didn't replace the tetra. When I turned the robot around and head back to the loading station, he realized he had forgotten and replaced it quickly but I still had to drive a bit slower to keep from getting to the loader before the tetra was placed. I didn't make a big deal out of it because it did not cost us the match.

[Adam Richards]

This happened once at FL during one of the qual matches. They actually pulled the refs and a representative from each team down on the field to discuss it, and the team it happened to was offered a rematch. I'm surprised the same wasn't offered to your team at your regional. How did your team do other than that match, though?

[JohnnyB]

At FLR, the autoloader volunteer was watching the game and not the autoloader. We went to load and had to wait for him, while we tried yelling at him and getting his attention. He finally put it on and we kept playing like normal. We won so it wasnt a big deal.

This past weekend at Detroit the volunteers were very good about everything, and we had no real problems. The one autoloader was a little slow though and we had to wait about 2 seconds while she was putting it on straight.

[Ethulin]

My team, 492, attended the PAC NW regional and I am pretty sure that this never happened during the quali+final matches for us.

This happened a few times during the practice matches, but some thing happened between the practice matches and the quali matches, maybe they got a talking too.

Another thing that happened a few times (more than them forgetting about the auto-loader) in the practice matches was that they forgot to remove the hanging tetra until long after autonomous was over. I have a feeling that this was never taken issue with due to the fact that it did not really impede anyone strategies as not being able to get a tetra from the auto-loader would have.