A plea for a quieter pit area

[Karibou]

IMO, there were problems with the noise level at Livonia this weekend. At one point when I was in the stands on Friday, I jumped back about two feet when I heard the first field noise blare from the speaker. I discovered that I WAS right next to a speaker, but there was still no excuse for it to be that loud. I also saw someone who had moved next to it during autonomous jump back when the teleop bell played. However, it WAS fixed by Saturday.

In the pits was another story. My team was located towards the back of the pit area, and I was able to hear voices very clearly from the doorway at the other end of our part of the fieldhouse. I cringed whenever one of these loud callers passed by our pit, or even through the row right behind us. The traffic flow was bad, but not bad enough to warrant a voice that loud. There were a few times when I was told by another student that I needed to belt out "ROBOT" at the top of my lungs, yet I was having no problems at the volume that I was using.

This last issue that I have was not a constant noise problem, but was still not pleasant. I was walking through one of the aisles to the door from my pit. Since it was around lunchtime, the pits were mostly empty, so I was able to move at a quicker pace. I was halfway down the aisle when someone jumped down from the bleachers along the wall, yelling at a volume that was louder than the calls of "robot," and was waving something that I think may have been a stuffed animal of some kind at me. Saying that it startled me would be an understatement. Because I was in a hurry, and was already in a bad mood, I didn't stop to express that what just happened was not appropriate pit behavior. I wish I had, but I hope that it never has the chance to happen again.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by KStout#3536

well im part of a rookie team and dont know every detail of every rule but the saftey advisors that were at the kettering comp. told us that it is actually a rule, there must be one person in front of the cart/robot being pulled yelling robot and everyone else who is pulling/pushing or around the cart must be yelling robot as well. hope this clears the air on this topic abit.

Can you please quote this "rule"?

I can understand the point the safety advisor was trying to make to you guys, but that just seems like blind advice. Sure, people will probably get out of your way as a parade of robot yelling passes them by, but there are better ways to do this that aren't terribly distracting.

[Dustin Shadbolt]

I agree. There are times when I wasn't even close to a robot on the move and still heard a earful of ROBOT. There are times when it is useful but if you are one of the only teams really moving on lets say Thursday, there isn't much use for it. I would prefer being tapped or asked nicely to step aside. There are visitors always in the pits and I'm not sure they will like being yelled at to move out the way. Gracious Professionalism. Now given there was times when I preoccupied with other things in my mind or talking to a student and I didn't hear a team or two. But that is only once in a great while.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Brandon Holley

Can you please quote this "rule"?

I can understand the point the safety advisor was trying to make to you guys, but that just seems like blind advice. Sure, people will probably get out of your way as a parade of robot yelling passes them by, but there are better ways to do this that aren't terribly distracting.

I'm wondering if that happened at the safety captains meeting or if it was advice given to teams, individually.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by KStout#3536

this is just something that the safety advisors told us, like i said were a rookie team and dont know to much so we just went with it.

see my revised post above.

[PhilBot]

At Pittsburgh, we were at the end of an isle, right next to the queuing area. So we heard a lot of "Robot" calls.

One particularly stupid child (wearing green if I recall correctly) was pulling a robot cart, walking backwards, not looking where they were going, yelling AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS...

"Robot coming, I'm pulling a robot, and I'm walking backwards without looking where I'm going".

Seriously... When did announcing your stupid behavior make it OK?

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by PhilBot

At Pittsburgh, we were at the end of an isle, right next to the queuing area. So we heard a lot of "Robot" calls.

One particularly stupid child (wearing green if I recall correctly) was pulling a robot cart, walking backwards, not looking where they were going, yelling AT THE TOP OF THEIR LUNGS...

"Robot coming, I'm pulling a robot, and I'm walking backwards without looking where I'm going".

Seriously... When did announcing your stupid behavior make it OK?

They should have been stopped and that person replaced right there on the spot. And one of their mentors should have been told about it, immediately.

Jane

[pfreivald]

Originally Posted by PhilBot

Seriously... When did announcing your stupid behavior make it OK?

Clearly, you don't pay much attention to politics...

[PhilBot]

Originally Posted by pfreivald

Clearly, you don't pay much attention to politics...

You are correct... I Don't

[Josh Fox]

Back in my day of cart-pulling as a driver, I generally liked to avoid the shouting of "robot" as well, generally sticking to a "pardon me" or "excuse us." If there's a large, congested, group of people just standing, I can understand a bit more urgency/volume, but there's no need to scream "ROBOT" if there's one person walking in front of you.

[Brandon Holley]

Originally Posted by KStout#3536

i see your point and i agree with you, so if anyone can come up with a way to alert all of the surrounding pits that you are pulling a robot through without being loud, annoying and late for your match please let the CD community know haha

Not to be rude, but if you had read this thread you will already see many suggestions on how to do such a thing.

Believe me, I've done this for a long time now, and I've never shouted ROBOT..and guess what? I can't recall ever missing a match either...

-Brando

[sanddrag]

Originally Posted by KStout#3536

i see your point and i agree with you, so if anyone can come up with a way to alert all of the surrounding pits that you are pulling a robot through without being loud, annoying and late for your match please let the CD community know haha

This is exactly the problem. There is no need to notify the surrounding pits that your robot is coming through. The people in the surrounding pits don't need to know, don't care about your robot coming through, and don't need to hear your yelling. If you need to yell, you're doing it wrong.

The noise in there is already bad enough that I have to yell to someone standing right next to me, just so they can hear what tool to get from the box. Yelling over music and background noise is one thing. Yelling over other people yelling "robot!" is quite another, which I'd prefer to not do.

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by KStout#3536

well im part of a rookie team and dont know every detail of every rule but the saftey advisors that were at the kettering comp. told us that it is actually a rule, there must be one person in front of the cart/robot being pulled yelling robot and everyone else who is pulling/pushing or around the cart must be yelling robot as well. hope this clears the air on this topic abit.

I can semi confirm this. One of the students on my team said they were told to yell robot by a judge*. I pointed out that it's a matter of discretion. If the walkway is clear, then you have very little reason to be yelling "robot". I'll definitely try and have them change tactics when transporting the robot. Or at least their tone of voice...


* I'm not completely sure who told them. Nor do I remember which student it was, so I can't ask either.