Thanks Steve, I appreciate the clarification. -Frank On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 9:26 AM, VA-DC Referee Advisor <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Frank and coaches, > > When discussing the Service Dog Action mission, M02, I don't think that > it is more restrictive than many other FLL missions, this year and in the > past. It may be a matter of perspective. The challenge of this mission is > to navigate through a constrained curved path, and the triggering of the > dog is the indication that you've succeeded. (Going west is required > because of the design of the triggering mechanism.) This is not inherently > an "operate a machine to obtain a desired result" mission (although that is > part of it, of course). > > Your teams have the freedom to decide how that traveling is > accomplished, as well as freedom of design to ensure that the fence is > triggered, sequencing of actions, and so on. > > In regard to the mission constraint that the fence must be down > "because" of the travel and "after" the travel, some actions are definitely > not allowed. Examples: > a) robot sitting in Base, triggering the Warning Fence, and then > driving between the barriers later. The team would not earn points for M02. > b) robot driving east of the fence, pulls it down and then, without > stopping ,continues and drives through the barrier path from the west. No > points. > c) requiring the robot to be shorter than the distance between the > easternmost barrier and the fence, so that the fence isn't triggered until > after the robot has passed all of the barriers--not reasonable. > d) What about a 20" long segmented bendable robot that enters the > barriers from the south entrance and triggers the fence while a substantial > part of the robot is still on the northward section of the > barriers--probably okay. (and cool--send me your pictures!) > > VA-DC FLL will be having its annual head referees conclave later this > month, and we'll definitely talk through exactly what we understand "after" > to mean for the mechanics of this mission, and how we will rule on it. > "Because" seems pretty clear to me, and easy to adjudicate. GP2 says to > use the common conversational meaning. > > As usual, Rule D04, Robot, doesn't distinguish between the Robot and > most active attachments. I think that everyone understands that. > > Steve Scherr > Virginia-DC FLL Referee Advisor > > P.S. Except for purposes of tournament registration, we prefer > "Advisors" or "Facilitators" or "Organizers" to "Overlords". (Except > occasionally during tournaments, c.f. R19, bullet 1, last sub-bullet, > moderated by GP5, #4) :-) > > > > > > > > On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 12:32 AM, Frank Levine <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > >> Hi All, >> I'm having a heck of a time figuring out the constraints for M02 >> (Service Dog Action) >> >> *"The Fence must be down because the Robot completely crossed it from the >> west, after traveling between the Barriers"* >> >> If my team wants to design an attachment to push the fence down and then >> cross it... is the fence down *because* the robot completely crossed >> it? I don't think so... it's down because the robot pushed it down... >> *then* the robot crossed the fence. It's certainly not down because the >> robot crossed it. It seems to me that the only legal solution is to have >> the robot push the fence down crossing from the west. This seems very >> 'un-FLL', in that there is no freedom to interpret... the method is >> completely specified. >> >> Any clarification from our FLL overlords would be greatly appreciated. >> >> >> Thanks, >> Frank Levine >> >> >> ------------------------------ > To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit > https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or > leave the list". > VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. > Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-announcements-l.html to > subscribe. > -- To UNSUBSCRIBE or CHANGE your settings, please visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-l.html and select "Join or leave the list". -- VADCFLL administrative announcements are sent via VADCFLL-ANNOUNCEMENTS-L. Visit https://listserv.jmu.edu/archives/vadcfll-ANNOUNCEMENTS-l.html to subscribe.