If you’re robot is disabled, is it possible for other teams to score on your trailer still? I couldn’t find anything that said it’s not possible so as of right now I’m assuming it is. Does anyone have some insight into this?
It’s not in the Rules - you’d have to have your mentor ask Q&A on the FIRST forums.
Thats a really good question. Hopefully, if it is, your alliance members will able to shield you. There seem to still be a few wholes in the rules still, but this might just be something I missed.
Our team’s interpretation is that yes it is possible. IMO, if you need to shut down your robot, you should build a kill switch, as this gives you the option of restarting it remotely.Yes there’s the thing about penalties, but I’m hard-pressed to think of a situation where you would be able to predict that your robot was going to incur one before it actually happened(not to mention that if you can do that, you can hit your own kill switch just as fast)
I think it would be open game because if you dont come out to the field doesnt the trailer still count as being scorable on? So wouldnt it be the same concept?
I was also wondering what happens if a team doesnt show up. I think they will call a random surrogate team to replace the robot. If there is just an empty trailor with no robot it will get light up by robots and human players.
Joey
I am pretty sure they have said already even if a robot doesnt come out than the trailer will still be there.
Where did you see that?
I thought I heard it during the kickoff broadcast but I was really tired so I dont know. And how would they chose the surrogate team? That would mess up the whole match rotation wouldn’t it?
It’s true that it would alter the match rotation but having an empty trailer would also cause problems. It’d provide an extremely easy scoring opportunity specially since it starts in front of an opposing team.
Technically via the rules of the game, if you become disabled on the field, well…there’s no rule that says your opponents are no longer allowed to score in your trailer. So assume you can keep scoring in a disabled robot’s trailer. If you put your bot on the field, then the refs have to assume that it will work, right? You’re the one who put it on the field. Since there’s still nothing in the rules that says what happens when a robot doesn’t show up, don’t assume anything! So if you’re not working, it’s up to you to not put it on the field…you’re a hinderance whether you put it there or not so you should seek help ahead of time!
Now, from a strategy point of view, if a robot becomes disabled mid-match there are two things the alliance with the disabled bot can do:
1.)Tip the trailer and take the penalty (but take less points of balls put into the trailer after it’s tipped over).
2.)Use that disabled bot as bait.
In all honesty, I forsee a greater point differential advantage in option #2 (oh snap, did I just give away something from my playbook?!)
But you also forget the rule about doubling the oppents score. I mean if you are only gonna score that much because its empty are you really gonna run the risk of losing a super cell for the next match where it wont just be sitting still?
Why would it mess up scheduling? Its basically a practice match for the surrogate team. I Nothing in that match counts for them. It may make that teams matches a little close together, but I personally would give up some time between matches to get a practice match with no pressure.
I forget what rule it is, but in the manual it says that the trailers are assingned to stating locations not robots.
Thats the rule. So basically you can score on the trailer that isn’t moving. But it “wouldnt be in the spirit of FIRST”.
<G10>, emphasis mine.
ROBOT Starting Positions – Prior to the MATCH, each TEAM negotiates within their ALLIANCE to select one of the three LAUNCH PADS of the ALLIANCE. Each ROBOT is then HITCHED to the TRAILER assigned to the selected LAUNCH PAD. The ROBOT and TRAILER are then placed entirely within the LAUNCH PAD, and positioned such that the TRAILER is in contact with the AIRLOCK or guard rail (as appropriate).
Apparently the robot is hitched to the trailer. The trailer is assigned to the launch pad. The combination, regardless of whether robot==null is placed within the launchpad.
Hence the trailer stays on the field and no rule prohibits or even implies against the the idea that it’s free game to score in. It’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, if you’re on the alliance with the disabled bot you will know where your opponents will be for the first minute of the match and can easily make up for the points the human player scores in autonomous…