At San Diego the head referee is giving two points to any robot that ends the match above the platform at the time the buzzer goes off-regardless of where it ends up when it comes to rest. This was apparently announced at the driver’s meeting yesterday and confirmed by her with the head referee at FIRST. This occurred during the very first qualification match of the day when a team hung, but slid to the floor immediately after the match ended.
See G05 as follows:
<G05> Scoring Determination - Scores will be assessed after all objects in motion, when the ARENA timer displays zero seconds, come to rest, or 10 seconds after the timer displays zero seconds, whichever comes first. The final score of a MATCH is the total of points assigned under Rule <G04> less any assigned PENALTIES.
Clearly this is not consistent with the rules. Has anyone at other week 1 events seen a misapplication of G05?
The Head Ref in KC was very clear at yesterday’s driver’s meeting that all that mattered was where things came to rest, including balls. He said any ball that scores after the buzzer (assuming it was moving before the buzzer), would count. It came into play on a match early this morning where a team got a ball rolling right before the match ended and it ended up scoring after time had expired.
Applying the rule prior to the robots being powered down would be fairly irritating. Not only is it a judgement call (did they actually get above the platform or not…), a fair bit of work went into many people’s hanging system under the understanding that it HAS to lock in place. Indeed, design compromises were made for exactly that reason…
Is the referee contending that at the moment that the timer displays zero, the robot is at rest, even if for just a millisecond?
If Aidan Browne concurs with this interpretation, life just got much easier for hanging robots!
This could get messy if a robot is swinging when time runs out and then drops below the platform. In this case the robot wasn’t “at rest” but was above the platform.
"This was apparently announced at the driver’s meeting yesterday and confirmed by her with the head referee at FIRST. "
<G05> Scoring Determination - Scores will be assessed after all objects in motion, when the ARENA timer displays zero seconds, come to rest, or 10 seconds after the timer displays zero seconds, whichever comes first. The final score of a MATCH is the total of points assigned under Rule <G04> less any assigned PENALTIES.
It doesn’t sound like what you’re being told by your refs is what we were told by the GDC… perhaps there has been a misunderstanding… but I can’t see how. This rule is pretty clear, and it sounds like what they are doing at your regional isn’t this.
It is quite clear this was not the intent of the GDC. It also seems clear this is an isolated incident. Seems like somehow, someone got confused and now everyone at SD is playing with a different set of rules.