Reminder for Human Players and Drivers

FIRST General Forum
1
  1. When placing a gear during auton, it is opposite of the light and it is a horizontal slot. NOT FACE DOWN
  2. Order of the rotors, rotors don’t work if the one before it isn’t spinning
  3. The reserve gear can’t be used in auton and don’t forget to place it during teleop.
  4. The ropes at 30 seconds left
  5. If there are gears your team can pick up, be sure to let them know where it is and guide them (if they can hear you)
  6. If the gear is placed at the very back of the peg, pull it up quick because it won’t fall off if its placed on properly
  7. Don’t move preplaced gears on the airship as it can result in a red card
  8. If the gear is on the very edge of peg, pull it up a bit and tell your team to push the peg in more so you can get the gear without worrying it will fall
  9. Do not jump up and down on the airship, I understand you may be excited but it might cause a rope to fall or a robot to fall which we don’t want. Saw this happen while scouting a match.
  10. Use hand signals to communicate, most teams do it, and some teams don’t. Also you have to be quick about things
  11. Look at all 3 pegs no matter what, I’ve seen many matches where gears are left on them.
  12. Be patient with gears, Make sure the robot is away from the peg then pull up, or at least not right on top of the gear still. Some robots have roofs over their gear holder which makes it impossible for Human Players to pull it straight up, so be patient a bit.
  13. During Auton if the gear is placed, pull it up slowly but not too slow, if you know you cant get it and you’re afraid the gear might fall in the robot, just hold stay where you are with the gear and wait until auton is over so the robot can move and then continue the gear, that way if it falls it won’t be inside the robot and cause the team to not be able to get gears without causing fouls
  14. Let your drivers know if you think they are spending too much time on a single peg, tell them to try a different one.

If you wanna add anything else feel free to do so

3

Some teams have enormous trouble climbing in the middle station if the gear peg isn’t pulled up. If this is a communicated issue, pilots should definitely make sure to remember to pull up that peg after the rope is dropped.

5
  1. If a gear is stuck on a peg, pull the entire lift assembly out of its track and put it on the floor of the airship. Stand on the assembly and pull up on the gear as hard as possible. (made sure to not hit yourself in the face)
  2. If you cannot remove the gear (tip locked in outer hole, etc) try to unscrew the tip and replace the lift. This is easier on some pegs than others. Some robots need the tip, others don’t. Make sure to let your drivers and/or coaches know.
  3. If all else fails, place the gear (with assembly attached) into the gear train and turn the crank very slowly. There’s no rule that prohibits it and it should be scored as normal.
    You may want to relocate the assemblies in case you had to remove a more frequented one.
6
  1. Make sure the other Human Player also knows what they are doing.

Drivers
21. Talk to your alliances about match strategy
22. If your robot goes to a certain peg the whole time, let your alliance know that so they keep clear of it.
23. If your shooting isn’t going well, just go for gears if you can
24. Don’t forget you can steal gears that are on the ground, even if they aren’t yours

7
  1. Similarly, don’t touch the davits.
  2. If the end of a rope doesn’t completely fall from its retaining strap, fixing it should be legal as long as you don’t reach below the deck.
  3. Watch your step!
  4. Be aware of the Retrieval Zone and Key rules. Make sure your alliance partners are as well.
  5. If there’s an opposing robot in their Retrieval Zone(near your airship), drive around the other side to place gears, eliminating the risk of bumping them.
8

As long as no part of the rope is below the deck. This is typically where I see HPs get busted. Most people know not to reach below deck, but they’ll miss that the even when the end of the rope is stuck the middle can hang below deck. Another is for a rope to fall on a davit, and then you have the don’t “contact davits” rule. Really just make sure you release the rope cleanly the first time, e.g. by actively pulling apart from the retaining strap and dropping it.

9
  1. Pilots, only leave airship when arena lights are green
  2. If knot is hard to remove from davit, bring a screwdriver to facilitate removal.
  3. Drive team, don’t enter field when lights are purple.
  4. Don’t drop rope early.
  5. Pilots, talk with fellow pilot on who and where gears will be placed.
  6. Drivers, don’t forcibly eject gears from robot onto floor.
  7. At 30 seconds when ropes are dropped, DON’T GO NEAR YOUR OPPONENTS ROPE!.
10

PILOTS:
Lift the middle peg for climbers in that position.
Also in that position if a robot needs to drop off a gear, wait until they back up before dropping the rope.
In all positions, drop the rope straight down from the davit, to reduce swaying (unless specified).
If an opponent is under a rope, drop it on them for a free climb.
If the peg is out of commission, lift it, wrap the string around it, then drop it again. It then sits about half way down, your partners won’t go there.
Also check if the string gets caught in just that way, happened to us once, missed the fourth rotor and the climb because of it.

HUMAN PLAYERS:
PLEASE FEED TO YOUR ROBOT ONLY! Some teams are ground only, if you aren’t they know how to do it best. Some HP’s know how to get their robot in and out in under 3 seconds, if you don’t know their robot, you will take extra time guaranteed. Some teams will try to load fuel, and get a gear in their hopper.
Human players know your opponents. If they have good ground robots, you can’t drop gears. They will grab them and it will be a free cycle for them.
G21 is very clear. DO NOT DUMP FUEL AT THE END OF THE MATCH! It’s a foul or a card, and I’ve won our team a couple matches by going to the question box and asking for a foul on them.

DRIVERS:
Know when it’s your turn in your RZ. It gets clogged there, just chill in Neutral, it will save time.
Know when you can’t be in your opponent’s RZ. It’s dumb to get techs there, just stay clear.
However, remember that you can be in their RZ. It might be risky sometimes, but you need to be tagged to receive a G13.
NO BLOCKADING! While playing defense, you can park a robot in front of the RZ, you can block access to their pegs, but not all 3. The rule isn’t very clear, but here are some examples:

  • 2+ robots in front of RZ (not blockading, they can go around airship, but it will be called)
  • Robots blocking both ways to RZ
  • Blocking access to all 3 pegs
  • Locking opponents into their side

COACH:
Don’t be polite, quiet, cautious. Be as loud as you can. Even if you can’t talk the next day, your drivers need to hear you. It probably doesn’t help that our coach is about 85 pounds, he barely even has lungs.
Think 10 seconds ahead, but call the shots 3 seconds ahead. Keep an eye on the field and keep your robot moving. Your drivers can ONLY think about how, not where.
THE LAST THING YOU NEED TO LOOK AT IS YOUR ROBOT! Your drivers will be talking if something is wrong.
If something is wrong, don’t explain during the match. While I was driving at our last comp, our gear mech was busted, and I hear our coach say to another team DURING a match, “so basically, you know our gear mechanism, right? blah blah blah we probably won’t be doing gears.” By the time he finished all his talking, the other coach was ignoring him and I had started playing defense without our coach.

11

This is not true. We had a similar situation occur in a qualification match at the Arizona regional which ended up requiring a call to HQ to change the score.
Contacting an opponent’s rope is a foul as long as they are not in contact with it.
If an opponent contacts you while you are in contact with their rope, a climb is awarded.
Contacting an opponent while they are in contact with their rope (or the rope while the opponent is in contact with it) is a free climb, but there is still a cap at three climbs.

If a robot from your own alliance is not present, dropping your rope into an opponent’s robot can result in a foul, but not a free climb.

12

Although this is a good way to avoid those nasty tech fouls, it’s a bit unnecessary. Keep in mind that as long as your robot volume doesn’t extend over the retrieval zone you are in the clear. I’ve given a fair share of good-hearted bumps to other teams (especially those with a gear pickup) inside the retrieval zone but since we never went inside the retrieval zone we were in the clear. It’s a good way of knocking them out of alignment and if done properly, it can prevent those juicy 140 points in elims. Just be mindful of those powerful drivetrains with the capability to push you into the retrieval zone :stuck_out_tongue:

13

G21 says ROBOTS may not blah blah blah. It says nothing about HUMANS. We were told that it’s completely legal for the humans to dump fuel and/or gears to try to interfere with the opponents. The head ref said that this came directly from headquarters. Which event(s) was this being ruled differently? (If it was early in the season, it may pre-date the ruling.)

14
15

G21. GAME PIECES: use as directed. ROBOTS may not deliberately use GAME PIECES, e.g.
GEARS, in an attempt to ease or amplify the challenge associated with other FIELD elements,
e.g. BOILERS, HOPPERS, or ROPES.
Violation: YELLOW CARD.

As BethMo pointed out, G21 says ROBOTS, not HUMANS, and the events that I have seen interpreted human player dumping as legal.

Furthermore (and potentially more troubling), there is no FOUL associated with G21, only a YELLOW CARD. Therefore, aside from a second yellow card causing a red card in elims, this penalty would never flip the outcome of a match as a comment seem to indicate. Has anyone seen events where FOUL(s) were handed out for G21 violations?

16

Same here.

Furthermore (and potentially more troubling), there is no FOUL associated with G21, only a YELLOW CARD. Therefore, aside from a second yellow card causing a red card in elims, this penalty would never flip the outcome of a match as a comment seem to indicate. Has anyone seen events where FOUL(s) were handed out for G21 violations?

Nope. And I haven’t seen anything to indicate that fouls should be handed out for G21 violations.

Really troubling: Teams able to flip a score by lobbying for a penalty (that doesn’t exist in that form). And you wonder why FIRST doesn’t allow instant replay…

Three of my favorites:
37. If you can, velcro your rope around the far side of the rotor pole. It’ll probably save you a foul+tech foul (particularly on the 2 or 3 rotor).
38. Make sure that there aren’t ropes UNDER gears before starting the rotor spinning. See also: red card for removing gear to drop rope.
39. And try to keep the rope away from spinning gears. It’ll try to drop if it isn’t secured, your opponents get points.