Misleading Mistakes in the Field Tour

Competition Rules/Strategy
1

I realize that the field tour is not authoritative for zone definitions and rules, however the mistakes in it have caused a fair amount of confusion in our team discussions.

Midline
Field Tour:

The midline bisects the neutral zone, and marks the middle of the field. It’s where six boulders begin the match. . . . On each side of the midline is an auto line; it’s 12 inches from the midline, edge to edge.

Manual:

MIDLINE: a line of 2 in. white gaffers tape that bisects the length of the FIELD.

So from what is said and written there does not appear to be much confusion, however in the field tour video at 0:16, the midline is highlighted as the area between the auto lines. Of course, this would not make sense with his next words that the auto lines are 12 inches from the midline, as they would instead be adjacent to it.

So let’s assume that midline is in fact what the manual defines it to be, the 2 in. tape line. Now look at G13:

During AUTO, ROBOTS may not enter the volume above the MIDLINE.

Of course, the boulders are 10 in. in diameter and the midline is only 2 in. wide; does that mean that robots could pick up a boulder from the midline in autonomous as long as they pick it up only touching the 4 in. of the boulder on their side of the midline? That seems extremely impractical for refs to judge from a distance.

Courtyard
Field Tour:

Each alliance has a courtyard, bordered by their castle, secret passage, guard rails, and outer works platforms. It doesn’t include the batter.

Manual:

COURTYARD: an infinitely tall volume bordered by, but excluding, the CASTLE WALL, the
GUARDRAIL, the SECRET PASSAGE and the OUTER WORKS.

Now consider G17:

ROBOT height, as measured when it’s resting normally on a flat floor, may not exceed 4 ft. 6 in.
during the MATCH, except during the final twenty (20) seconds of TELEOP where there is no height
limit when a ROBOT is fully contained by the opponent’s COURTYARD.

Obviously, the second part of the rule is there to allow scaling mechanisms, but if the field tour’s definition of the courtyard would be used, G17 would actually do nothing to allow scaling. On this one, we of course just follow the manual and everything makes sense, however I just wanted to point out the inconsistencies between the field tour and the manual and the confusion they could cause.

2

So this is a good time for the Day after Kickoff reminder. "Read the rules. The rules and the FIRST Q&A are the defining source. Comments on CD, Reddit, etc along with video’s are just other peoples ideas / visions. They are NOT the rules. Please read the rules and use the rules and the field diagrams for all of your strategy creation and robot design / construction. If you have someone that says ‘But I read it on CD’ or saw it on Youtube needs to back it up with the rules.

This OP post was helpful in showing the differences and showing that they went back to the rules. Yay!!!

Watching the video to get a general sense of the game and lamenting the loss of Dozer (RIP 2015) should be the only thing it’s used for.

3

Thank you, Foster :smiley:

Although I would still like to hear what people think about the midline conundrum, as it does not seem that refs could reasonably judge G13 as the midline is currently defined in the manual. I’m guessing it will just end up having to go to the Q&A and be revised in a team update.

4

I have read the rules and one thing bothers me which I could not find an answer to. "When you lift the Portcullis up does it stay up by itself while your robot travels through it?

5

No it doesn’t.

6

If a robot contacts a boulder anywhere near or past the middle of the boulder, it has violated the rule

7

I feel like the idea of this game is to get through the defenses in auto and take a shot. I don’t think they think anybody will be able to actually make it back through the defenses grab another boulder and then go back through the defenses again to take another shot.

8

Every year I think nobody will do “x” … and then someone does “x” and “y” in Auto.

9

So Zero robots making it to Einstein will be able to shoot at least 1 boulder from the 6 in the middle during autonomus?

My guess is at least 6 will be able to.

10

Where is the discrepancy? The manual says,

MIDLINE: a line of 2 in. white gaffers tape that bisects the length of the FIELD.

Bisecting the length of the field means it is equidistant from each end of the FIELD - it crosses the FIELD in the middle. Which is exactly where the video shows it to be.

I agree, the videos are not definitive, the rules are. But here I don’t see a difference.

11

From my original post:

So from what is said and written there does not appear to be much confusion, however in the field tour video at 0:16, the midline is highlighted as the area between the auto lines. Of course, this would not make sense with his next words that the auto lines are 12 inches from the midline, as they would instead be adjacent to it.

12

OK, I see what you mean, you think the highlighting is too wide. Ehh. Would making only the line flash have been enough of a contrast to see?

I don’t think this is giving misinformation - no one is going to mistake an area for a line.

13

So does this mean that refs are going to have to call robots on their position down to the inch, from at least about ten feet away?

14

IMHO, if you are at or past the halfway point of the ball, you are clearly in or past the mid-line. I don’t think they will call 0.25" into the mid-line.

Your device must be designed to attach to your side of the ball without going near the middle of the ball. A vacuum attachment to the front side of the ball is about all that I can think of.

15

Or a healthy amount of friction. The robot may squeeze the boulder, as long as it doesn’t cause any damage.