Does R13 allow for design reuse from previous years?

[Michael Hill]

I've always interpreted the rule:

ROBOT elements created before Kickoff are not permitted. ROBOT elements, including software, that are designed before Kickoff are not permitted.

Exceptions include the following:

BUMPERS,
OPERATOR CONSOLE,
battery assemblies per R5-A, and
software and designs with source files publicly available prior to Kickoff.

As to include software only. However, upon a second look, I see "and designs". Does that mean a team can make CAD files for their drive base publicly available and reuse the same design year after year (with minor modifications)? If so, that would have saved us about 4-7 days during the build season.

[TheKeeg]

If you make it public then you can use designs again.

[thefro526]

I tried to find a Q&A from 2014 regarding R14, but didn't - although I think this excerpt from the blue box illustrates how this rule is supposed to work:

Example 5: A different Team develops a similar solution during the fall, and plans to use the developed software on their competition ROBOT. After completing the software, they post it in a generally accessible public forum and make the code available to all Teams. Because they have made their software publicly available before Kickoff, they can use it on their ROBOT.

Basically, if you design a 2-speed transmission, drivetrain, bearing block, etc, etc, during the off-season and post the 'design' somewhere publicly, whether it be CD, FIRST Forums, or your teams website, you're allowed to use it on-season, with the idea being that any other team could chose to use it too.

[Zuelu562]

Taking inspiration from previous robots, like looking at Simbotic's 2007 bot and designing something during the season based on it, is never disallowed; what is expressly disallowed (as an example for this year) is opening up your 2007 CAD and building it and sending it to competition, assuming it was never released to the public. Unless you modified the designs, you'd actually probably violate R1 in the process, due to the significant size difference of the game piece in those years.