At worlds i was asked multiple times by students about the use of the badges that they had to wear to get into the pits. I could not give them a good explanation of this so i was wondering if anyone could explain them to me
While I don’t know the number of crew badges that were handed out, there were a couple types of identification that were required if you were in the playoffs.
Drive team badges. You have 4 of these including one coach badge (the one with the dot).
Pit Crew Badges. I don’t know how many were given out but you needed that badge to be on the field.
Einstein badges. You needed a special Einstein button if you were on Einstein at the end of the day. That was in addition to the other badges mentioned.
The stated reason in the email blasts is increased security. I suspect the data mining is at least a secondary consideration. Currently, the only way to preregister is by teams or volunteering. Allowing preregistration by non team people would be an improvement. Non of this seems to be mentioned in the Championship A to Z.
I expect a part of that is a fear of overpopulating the pit areas. They’re already pretty clustered with only those allowed into the area. If they didn’t try to limit people getting in, imagine what it’d be like getting teams from their pit to the field.
Especially during playoffs. I already had an issue with teams not staying within the boundaries of their field-side pits as it is. Allowing anyone down there would have been purely chaotic.
Typically, you get the drive team buttons and one safety captain button. The badges are meant to show where you are allowed to go and your status. However, anyone can go into the pits if they have a badge but its not recommended to stay in heavily congested areas. If I remember correctly, there is also a media badge so you can take pictures and record matches while your team is on the field.
Fitting 28 people, 4 robots and supplies in a 15’ pit is almost impossible.
Most of the alliances only kept the three they were fielding next in the playoff pits. I don’t know how they expected to keep that many people and supplies in a tiny little area.
I hated being a bit strong with enforcing the boundaries, but there was a very tiny aisleway between the pits and the field. Traffic control was a nightmare.
While we could not fit all 28 people in at a time, we did manage to park all 4 robots and carts, 4 pit boxes, and a rolling tool chest into the space with enough room to work on all 4 bots as needed. Any extra people either stood just outside the pit or over in the nearby field viewing area next to the field.
But that is not what OP is talking about. He was asking about the Event Badges that everyone was supposed to wear at all times while at the event. I do not have a good answer for him however.