G15. Be careful about what you grab on to. DRIVE TEAMS, ROBOTS, and OPERATOR CONSOLES are prohibited from the following actions with regards to interaction with ARENA elements.
Items A and B exclude DRIVE TEAM interaction with FIELD elements in their areas.
Item C excludes use of the PLAYER STATION hook-and-loop tape, plugging in to the provided power outlet, and plugging the provided Ethernet cable in to the OPERATOR CONSOLE.
Items A-E exclude GAME PIECES.
Items A-G exclude ROPES installed on an ALLIANCE’S AIRSHIP.
Items A-H exclude a ROBOT’S interaction with a Team supplied ROPE that doesn’t litter the FIELD.
A. Grabbing
B. Grasping
C. Attaching to (including the use of hook-and-loop tape against the FIELD carpet)
D. Grappling
E. Hanging
F. Deforming*
G. Becoming entangled
H. Damaging
Violation: If prior to MATCH, and situation can be corrected quickly, it must be remedied before
the MATCH will start. If during a MATCH, FOUL. If during a MATCH and extended or repeated,
YELLOW CARD. If offense is via a ROBOT and the Head REFEREE determines that further
damage is likely to occur, offending ROBOT will be DISABLED. Corrective action (such as
eliminating sharp edges, removing the damaging MECHANISM, and/or re-Inspection) may be
required before the ROBOT will be allowed to compete in subsequent MATCHES.
*Consequently every robot hanging gears on the LIFT peg deserve yellow cards
Red Robot is assigned to play defense. They do this by bumping and pinning Blue Robots. During match play, Red Robot pins Blue Robot against the LIFT peg causing the spring to permanently deform, making it impossible to hang a gear. Play continues and the defense continues, causing another spring to permanently deform in the same way.
This puts a bottleneck in the Blue Alliance gear scoring ability. The Red Alliance ultimately wins due to broken LIFT pegs.
IS this normal robot interaction? Should Red Robot be penalized for normal defensive maneuvers, even though the field is now broken?
If you watch our finals match 1, we got slammed into while trying to score our 1st peg. The peg deformed and we only could manage to put on 1 gear after 2 unsuccessful attempts.
They told us its only a 5pt penalty, and only after we brought it up with head ref after the match.:rolleyes:
It was quite frustrating trying to score on a damaged field element.
This needs to be fixed by FIRST. Otherwise, we will adjust our strategy accordingly and master it!
Im just surprised that after being slammed into several times, our own robot which causes the deformation of both the peg/spring and airship dividers as a result, isnt broken so far.
In fact, a robot each in the semis and finals that slammed into us full speed both stopped moving in those matches.
In 2014, FIRST quickly ruled that taking running starts and ramming were illegal. I wouldn’t be… unhappy… to see that this year. The whole ‘whose robot breaks first’ thing never appealed to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m against damaging my opponents, but if you build fragile robots and extend beyond your bumpers, don’t expect your opponents to go soft on you. This is a competition.
Those pegs on the springs are for the birds! We went through all that were shipped to us in Waterbury. We had some made from Plexiglas in house, but never got to use them. The springs are quite soft & bend, droop fairly easy. All in all the field held up quite nicely.
Teams need to figure out a better/quicker way to remove their robots from the Davit. We did cut a couple due to time constraints. We are not going to waste 1-2 minutes trying to remove a robot due to no release on the robot. I have bruised thumbs trying to pry the rope, or other material up over the davit mount. That being said I’m sure the teams feel the same way & will come up with solutions.I had a great time as the FS in Waterbury & am looking forward to being the FS in Hartford.
If the FTA determines Red robot is the cause of the damage, then it should be a field fault and the match should be replayed. Keep in mind that determination is up to the FTA. If they think it is a strategy then they will have a discussion with the offending team. The FTA dislike teams intentionally damaging their fields. :]
