Yes but I’m referring to like an inch off ( super wack) I’ve seen it so I know it’s possible
The way I read this, the field should be on the feet.
But if you show up to a tournament and the field is old with cut tiles and the field on the floor without the feet, what will you do? The difference is that the wall can move a little, but you can easily put your foot by the wall to push it back or hold it in place from the other side as needed.
You can contact the EP’s ahead of time in your region and see what you’ll be working with.
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If I showed up to a tournament and the field had no feet, I would politely inform the EPs that their field required feet. Then the rest of the events in my region (including the rest of the qualifiers and the state tournament) would have proper field setup.
All the EPs at the events I’ve attended would be happy to correct such an error. Just ask nicely and be respectful.
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That’s the same way it is around here. But I’m surprised to find that the culture of vex varies from region to region.
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one idea I had to counter such an issue, would be to have a ziptie or something bendy stick out the back of your robot an inch or so, that way you could place your robot in the same place at each event, while it is still touching the perimeter.
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Thats what I was thinking… but is it legal?
no reason it wouldn’t be legal. my only concern is that you’d be essentially giving up an inch of space on your bot.
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Whatever was sticking out would count against your 18in but that’s a pretty good idea…
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I was thinking this too, but you’d need to sacrifice an inch of horizontal space. There might be another way to solve it with code using the ultra-sonic sensor line up with one of the scoring towers or pre stacked cube towers to be able to detect precisely how far the robot is from that tower. This assumes that the cube towers are centered with your robot properly and no interference exists in the sensor but the wall variance and cube distances would be arbitrary if coded properly.
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Hi, I’m new to vex robotics I just started last month, I just wanted to ask why it is that teams cannot use line trackers to align their robots once it has started?
Correct, but the situation for an EP is if a loaner field arrives with all the parts - this happens and we move on. Moreover, this happens at different venues and different EPs, so be prepare to compete on field with no rubber feet. It happens and it is not against the rules.
I know during TP we had to go to Home Depot to bail out an EP who was missing some of the PVC pipes, looked funny, worked fine.
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I save some of the PVC, so I used some of the PVC from bankshot to fix a TP field. It was transported on an open trailer and a piece just flew away!
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Nothing wrong with line trackers but if you’ve familiarized yourself with this years game, there arnt really any lines to track. The only lines we have are the auton line down the middle, and the protected zone. And while both of these could work to make sure your ligned up, it just wouldn’t make sense to drive halfway across the field for some people just to make sure your ligned up, given that we only have 15 seconds.
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I am starting to lean towards the vision sensor because for auton you could just have it track whatever cube your going for and that can be your alignment
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To be honest I dont see there to be much of a problem with alignment. Even if the perimeter is slightly off by a couple of degrees you arent really having to go that far to intake cubes and score them. Also, many robots in Turning Point have used the perimeter to re-align to the field. For example, 365X who won skills at VEX Worlds re alligned and had one of the most consistent programming skills via backing into the perimeter.
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Rubber feet are considered a supporting structure of the field perimeter. Therefore, they are required to be a present on a competition field.
Ok I give you refund, you really don’t want to compete…
Really?
Having the rubber feet on the field can mean the difference between winning and losing a match. Taller field walls make it less likely for cubes to tip over. They also affect the placement of robots before autonomous.
There’s a reason the GDC specified that they are required on all fields regardless of whether field tiles are cut or not.
The entire purpose of the field specifications is to ensure a consistent and fair experience for all teams regardless of event. It seems like $10 for some rubber feet isn’t too much to ask to ensure a fair playing field.
I know my team, and most of the teams I’ve talked to, wouldn’t mind paying an extra $10 in registration fees to go to an event if it guaranteed them a fair field.
Nobody should have to pick and choose which events to do skills runs at based on the quality of the fields at the venue.
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I don’t think the high road works here. If you can’t make fields proper for competitors, is it really a good idea to be running a competition? If something easy like rubber feet is missing, there are sure to be other important things that are lacking in quality about your tournament. Your time is better spent helping someone else run a tournament with their fields than running your own tournament if that’s how little you care about preserving the competitive experience.
It’s still true, @Wes8, however that students shouldn’t be getting very angry in person to EPs about this. It’s certainly hard to just make it work on the day of the tournament. However, it definitely needs to be said that by no means should EPs be lax about their fields. I would gladly lose a qualification if it meant the EP had more time to do proper setup. It’s not exactly the feet that matter, but the overall quality of the field must be kept to the best of the EP’s ability. If that means shifting the field over and taping it down, so be it.
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It is interesting what the high road is in this case. If I am running a six field event and two do not have rubber feet, do we terminate the event? Or is what is being asked that every field has rubber feet or no event? I have been in situations where this has been the case (not as the EP but supporting an event). So cancel the event? or continue? which makes sense? One scenario dictates that only events with rubber feet are acceptable, the other says figure it out with what you have. If I am an EP with lots of teams coming in and loaner fields (a regular occurrence) I would look for a way of teams being able to continue… the other view is that the fields have to be absolutely perfect or no competition… I am in favor of continuing with what I have as long as it is equitable for teams. If you do not wish to compete in such a circumstance that is within the threshold vertically and horizontally specified by the GDC, then I am ok saying do not compete at my event and even willing to refund your entry fee. The reality is this - Competition day you have what you have, you work with your teams as best as you can. I would like to think so far we have in my organization complied with the specifications of competitions, but I have been to other events where things were not so “perfect” and rolled with it. End of the day, field weirdness is just another problem for all teams to overcome, not just elite teams who can not overcome field variation.
At the EP Summit I had a conversation about having an event on an island, the suggestion was to have it on a cruise ship… what do you do if the ship was pitching back and forth on high seas… maybe way more than 1" variance…
It’s all good, if you depend on rubber feet, maybe, just maybe, you need to rethink your strategy for 1/2" difference vertical adjustment…
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