FIRST team and Battlebots?
 

I heard that a team that was at RoboNexus is planning to do First and Battle-bots. I forgot which team was it. I was wonder if its a good idea or not to do Robotics outside of First, especially if it can kill you. Also if its possible for that team could keep us updated on how there doing?

Re: FIRST team and Battlebots?
 

It's deffinately possible. The RoboDevils from Pike High School in Indy are in BEST I believe. It looks as if they can do it year after year. If you can get funding to do so I would say do it, but if funding is an issue try to stay in FIRST. I'm not quite sure how much BEST or Battlebots IQ costs, but it may be a way to try new things that might be able to somehow help a team in FIRST.

Thats my $0.02

Re: FIRST team and Battlebots?
 

Robotics is a very large field, covering everything from battlebots to putting robots on mars. FIRST is a good way to learn the basics of engineering and robotics but it is by no means the end. Everything different that I work on i look at it as an application of knowledge that i have acquired and also a learning experience and if opportunities are presented to me to work on challenging projects i always go after them. I think it is important for people to expand their horizons and try new things.

From personal experience I just recently built a battlebot and while there were alot of similarities between the FIRST robots i have worked on and the bot it still exposed me to some different applications of technology that i would never have seen otherwise, even stuff i may use in FIRST in future years (no spinning weapons though :D )

Just remember that FIRST is just the beginning of what you can do if you put your mind to it.

Re: FIRST team and Battlebots?
 

A lot of the teams in Broward (1251, 108, 408, 1345) participate in BEST. The competitions are different in the sense that there is less leeway in BEST (more components, more constraints on the field for the robot).

I don't think BEST costs anything though so, for example, our team used it to gain popularity to get funding for FIRST (maybe a company will see what we can do...). In my opinion, so far, it hasn't worked and we just end up tight at the end but 1251 and 108 seem to be managing. This is merely from my point of view though and from what I see (I don't know what really goes on in their teams).

I say if you can afford to do it, time-wise, money-wise and people-wise, do. If not, stick to one competition.