FIRST Robotics Competition Blog

Knowing that this could be a problem and having to blast this out time and time again, why even change the paradigm? Why didn't you just make the volume smaller and not have it include bumpers? As you so point out, if a team showed up with a robot the size of the volume (without bumpers), their season is basically over, before it even started. This is simply bad design that serves as a trap. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess this will happen to more than zero teams. Unless you're trying to teach a hard lesson (which is a poor way to inspire), why even chance it?

This is a great question!  And it deserves a lengthy answer.  We thought hard about the implications of this change this year before we made it.

The change had very specific purposes.  We wanted to limit the amount of fuel a team could carry by limiting the volume of the robot, rather than by having an actual fuel count limit, which would have been very difficult to implement logistically.  At the same time, we wanted to allow teams to reach over their bumpers with mechanisms, including ball storage mechanisms, if they wished.  Also, we wanted to automate scoring of the 'ready for takeoff' portion of the game, in which the robots climb the ropes.  Thinking through many options for automating this, we recognized a touchpad would be simplest to implement.  However, we also wanted a high degree of confidence a robot could only operate the touchpad if it was not in contact with the floor.  If you look at the maximum diagonal of the legal robot envelopes, you will see that they are within a few inches of the height of the touchpad itself.  We thought it very unlikely that robots will take up the full corner-to-corner diagonal in their designs, or be climbing from their extreme corners, so it's almost certain that robots that are 'ready for takeoff' will actually not be touching the ground, without requiring any referee judgment calls on that, or any delays in scoring.  Within one second after the match is complete, unless something unusual happens requiring referee consultation, the score if finalized automatically and ready to be posted.

These two things together – fuel limits with over-bumper mechanisms and automated ‘ready for takeoff’ scoring, meant the simplest way for us to implement size rules was for us to give overall dimensions, rather than some more complex (and  likely more limiting for teams) set of frame perimeter plus ‘reach’ dimensions. 

We recognize this change may be a challenge for some, but we are communicating this as clearly as we can, and we believe the trade-off is worth it.  Fundamentally, it’s very easy to understand.  There are two boxes.  Your robot, with everything attached, has to fit in one of the two.   

I don't have a problem with the way the size of the robots are measured but you should have included the reason for the change and made it a little more obvious than the word "including" instead of "excluding" as it has been in the past.  How precise do the bumpers need to be made?  By nature they are flexible and therefore their size is variable.  The fabric tension alone will change the thickness.  Should we use a bumper thickness of 3.25" as implied by the rules and hope they are close enough to pass inspection?

My name is Diana Estrada mother  of Matias Osuna from Medellín, Colombia. My son has registered for the event in March, but I haven't received the confirmation email. Could you please help me out?

Thank you