Re: Robot in 3 Days 2015
 

Having mentored a team last you for the first time in almost a decade, it was challenging to get them to be creative and take what they learned from Ri3D and toss it. I didn't want a Ri3D clone, and it was because I felt like they wouldn't get the same sense of accomplishment that I did when I was on a team. That being said, I feel that they still took Ri3D and learned from it, and they saw just what could be done if you tried hard enough. Now I am fortunate enough to work with people at AndyMark who are on Team Indiana, and I love what they are doing. Because I realize more, and remember more, that FIRST is about so much more than the students doing everything. It's about Inspiration. Honestly, I feel like the Ri3D debate boils back down to what is inspiration? Is it the engineer designed, student or engineer built robot? Or is it the students did everything and it barely moves robot? Ultimately I feel like it is up to the mentors and the students on each team to work together and find the balance of what is right for their team, and what inspires these students to pursue STEM. I know my team in HS was very engineer heavy, but the students also built the robots and worked in the pit. That team, at that time, inspired me to pursue Mechanical Engineering, and ultimately has led me to this point in my life. So in my mind, FIRST worked. And if Ri3D becomes the new engineer built robot of FIRST, then so be it, because they are still inspiring the next generation of FIRSTer.

Re: Robot in 3 Days 2015
 

I think the Ri3d and other mass-mentoring efforts are a big improvement to our experience. We rookied in Rebound Rumble, and we had no idea what we were up against. If Ri3d had started a year earlier, we would probably have realized that it took a couple dozen pounds of force to tip that 100+lb bridge. As it was, we didn't do the math ourselves and couldn't get over the hump, as we used a window motor on about a 24-inch moment arm (< 4# force at the end!). We built a defensive bot (very low gear ratio, good ball pickup and a full-court throw (though never calibrated; we mostly wanted to starve the other field of balls), so we never did get to do what we designed for. During competition, we managed to morph this into a ramp that we just "locked" in place against our frame, but we didn't get it working until our final match, when we did manage to bring balls on our side of the field and help an alliance partner with slick wheels onto the bridge for balance points. It was a great build and learning experience, but a disheartening competition experience.

For Ultimate Ascent, we did all our usual work on the first three days (not realizing that Ri3d was out there just yet). After Ri3d, we made some serious readjustments to our shooter, as ours was so much more complicated than the Ri3d design that we knew we weren't on the right track. Our design DID feature the spinning wheels to project the disks, but we still had plenty of issues that we solved ourselves (including using some FLL parts for the feeder to prevent jamming), and some plastic blocks to keep the frisbees properly engaged on the wheels, which brought our short-range shooting down to about a 98% shot (with the 2% being bad alignment). Our climber didn't look anything like the Ri3d; we went for the 30-point climb (couldn't have made it as we were a bit too large, though the technique itself was good).

For Aerial Assist, we still went at things full tilt, even knowing that there would be an Ri3d. I don't even recall what the Ri3d design was, but I do know that ours was scrapped and GREATLY simplified after a week or so. I do know that we did not have a bunch of Ri3d clones at our regional, because there weren't more than about three of any given basic design (except a kitbot with a box on top), and several were unique.

I believe that having seven (or more) independent Ri3d teams makes this an even better contribution to the FRC community, and 3946 in particular. For instance, we can now incorporate Ri3d into our strategic planning, as well as our individual robot planning. That is, we can ask questions like "How well would would we do when alllied with robots A and B against robots C, D, and E?", with A, B, C, D, and E all being different Ri3d robots. The bottom line is, we plan to continue with our full processes of brainstorming BEFORE Ri3d, but then we'll adjust not only our expectations of what we'll build, but of what our opposition may build based on the videos. As a team that has misread the actual game play for three games in a row, having seven separate Ri3d's is WONDERFUL news!

Re: Robot in 3 Days 2015
 

This is one of the things I'm excited about as well. Having watched Ri3D and Build Blitz over the last two years, I'm very excited to see what seven different teams with wildly varying objectives and resources will come up with. I know 'Snow Problem, the team I'm working with, plans to heavily focus on building something very simple, reliable, and, if the game allows it, a focus on supporting/assisting other teams. Combined with an emphasis on releasing documentation, I hope we'll be able to put our own spin on the idea of Robot in Three Days. We also hope to release more documentation in the week after the build-- stuff like building better bumpers, and painting a robot. If you have anything in particular that you'd like to see, feel free to ask over in our thread.