Re: Team Update #1
 

Check in section 5.3.5.

Re: Team Update #1
 

5.3.5 Coopertition Score (CS)
Any borrowed MINIBOT which scores points by legally triggering the TARGET during the MATCH receives one (1) Coopertition point for the FRC TEAM registered for the event that is affiliated with the MINIBOT.
The total number of Coopertition points earned by a TEAM throughout the qualification matches will be their Coopertition score.

Re: Team Update #1
 

100% correct. So now let's think at the edge of the box.

My presumption is that if I were on an FTC team that had 4-8 Nobel Prize winning mini-bots that were as fast as Dave eating a Krispy Kreme and were also equipped with a universal Hostbot-interface for deployment and activiation; I would be able to walk into any FRC competition; do a demo on the practice field; and almost immediately become affilated with a new-best-friend FRC team.

I'll even bet that the FRC team would let me take home any Coopertition trophy that we earned together.

So long as "affiliation" doesn't have any special meaning beyond cooperating during the tournament's 3 days, then going stag sounds reasonable to me.

Blake

Re: Team Update #1
 

Just to keep everyone honest, at this point the universal interface is part of the HOSTBOT and so must be included in the 120 lb. weight.

Re: Team Update #1
 

Steve -- I think the problem here is that none of these after-school competition engineering programs have "dominant market share and destruction of our competitors" in their mission statements. One way or another, all of these programs (FRC, VRC, BEST, Botball, TSA, Skills, etc.) have a mission statement that comes down to "showing young people that science and technology is fun, and that you can go on to college and a career in the field." Once the mission statement becomes, "Build the cash reserves and dominate the market" they've already lost track of their purpose.

I work for the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation, the folks that run the VEX Robotics Competition, and it bugs me when a school chooses not to be part of our program. At some point, though, you need to suck it up, realize that more than 90% of all middle and high schools don't have ANY engineering/science challenge, and remember that a successful program in a school is a win for all of us.

Re: Team Update #1
 

Just one small note, Sam, starting with the 2010-2011 season, VRC is now produced by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF) in partnership with IFI. The RECF is a 501(c)(3) educational foundation. The relationship between RECF and IFI is similar to that between FIRST and LEGO for FLL and FTC. VEX Robotics, Inc., a division of IFI, works in partnership with RECF to design and create a STEM competition program for youth and college students. RECF also supports other youth STEM programs on its Website at www.robotevents.com.

Just wanted to get that cleared up.

Re: Team Update #1
 

If you use more than one "universal" interface, both of them added together must be included in your 120 pounds. So you can't sometimes use an interface from FTC Team 1 and another time from FTC Team 2, unless you've got the weight allowance in your HOSTBOT that would cover both of them.

Replace the words "GAME PIECE manipulator" with "MINIBOT deployment device" and you will see that both devices must be included in your HOSTBOT weight.

Re: Team Update #1
 

Here is the sense in which I (try to) use the word "interface".

"An interface is a boundary between two things, not the thing on either side of the interface. Things meet at interfaces. The things on either side of the interface might have plugs, sockets, transmitters, receivers, tabs, alignment pins, etc. Those are the parts of the "things" that are exposed at the interface and conform to the interface, but are not the interface."

Debating this interpretation isn't necessary - I know others exist; and I see that I was sloppy when I said the mythical mini-bot would be equipped with an interface instead of saying that it would conform to the magic universal interface spec.

More interestingly, the discussion seems to be saying this: Minibots loaned to random Hostbots have to be properly deployed and activated somehow; and as folks have pointed out, if the Minibot rides in a carrier that gets left behind on the Hostbot, that carrier's weight and the weight of any/all carrier types/implementations that Hostbot uses throughout the entire regional need to be properly accounted for during inspection and subsequent preparation for all matches.

Using a Minibot carrier only once and I suppose its weight isn't on the Hostbot's books for the entire tournament; use three different carriers repeatedly, and you might need to pass inspection with all three on the scales.

Remember, I'm not the official Q&A.

Blake