Guidance from the Head Referee and Field Technical Advisors
Hi Teams!
We’ve had a great season so far and are looking forward to seeing everyone at the NM State Championship on Feb 20-21 at Menaul School.
Based on experiences at the two Qualifiers, we do have some guidance from the Head Referee and Field Technical Advisors that we would like to share before the Championship.
In the DECODE Challenge, there will be significant occurrences of Incidental Contact between robots. This is due to robots attempting to shoot artifacts into both goals from the common center area of the field and teams attempting to block opposing teams from shooting into the goals. This is all part of the fun in the DECODE Challenge but will definitely result in interaction between robots including physical contact!
It is very important that your robots be designed and built to deal with this contact! In the qualifiers, we observed several robots that were turned off, disabled, or that became entangled with other robots. We understand it is very discouraging when this happens since you have to stand there and watch everyone else compete around your dead robot. Most of the field staff are current/former coaches and/or alumni ourselves – with very few exceptions, we’ve all been there!
Power Switches: These need to be mounted or protected in such a way that incidental contact or being struck by a launched artifact does not result in the robot being powered off. Per the rules, these switches must be labeled and accessible to field personnel in an emergency but they do not need to be directly on the perimeter of the robot or overly exposed to inadvertent contact. The allowed switches are actually quite easily turned off by this type of contact. It is not difficult to put them in a location that is accessible per the rules but immune to inadvertent contact. You are also allowed to build guards around them as long as they don’t interfere with a person from safely turning them off. 3D printed parts are great for this!
Wiring: We’ve observed some robots with loose or dangling wires. While we usually look for this in inspection and will flag gross violations, we know how the day goes and that wiring can get loose due to robot movement and rapid modification/repairs. Other robots, artifacts or your own robot mechanisms can easily become entangled in this wiring resulting in disconnections and, worst case, damage to your valuable electronics. Please make sure all of your wires are neatly routed and properly secured in a way that prevents them from being snagged during game play.
Batteries: Please make sure your batteries are properly restrained such that they will not become loose or separated from your robot or dragged around on the field during game play. This can easily disable you and presents a significant safety hazard. For safety, referees may instruct you to disable your robot during the match if this occurs.
Ground Straps: These are small cables available from Rev Robotics designed to be plugged into one of the battery ports on your Control or Expansion Hubs and then connected to the robot frame on the other end. These provide a safe, high resistance path for static electricity built up on the robots to be discharged before it causes a glitch or crash in your robot’s control system. This can especially occur when robots bump each other or part of the field. While not required in the rules, the use of these is strongly advised in our very dry climate. We also do spray the competition fields with a staticide several; times during the day to help with this.
At the Championship, I’m going to instruct the Robot Inspectors to pay closer attention to these details. Where robot rules are not being met, you will be required to fix it before being allowed to compete. Where rules are not being broken, but we feel it could jeopardize your success, safety or otherwise result in delays, we will make recommendations that you make modifications or clean things up.
If you have any questions, please reach out to us via the “Contact Us” feature on the website.
Good Luck at the Championship!
Jim, Daniel, Patrick