First off thanks for checking it out! It means a lot that there are people interested and thank you very much for your feedback!
I personally feel the same way, that ground vehicles should be included as well. Or at least that the competition shouldn't revolve around aerial vehicles COMPLETELY. I had a lot of fun designing ground vehicles in FRC and I wouldn't want that to go away.
However, aerial vehicles do definitely present quite a bit of a mechanical challenge themselves. In fact, I'm almost positive that no two teams used the same structure or type of material in their quadrocopter this year. As for grippers and such, it is entirely possible to put one on, how do you balance it and such, I feel would be yet another mechanical challenge! Beyond that, it presents a very sophisticated problem for ECE and CS guys, as they have to try to develop a more advanced control system for a more advanced problem. I think all in all aerial vehicles are an interesting problem that do all kinds of majors. It also definitely "spices" things up a little bit as opposed to ground robots.
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Originally Posted by Matt2081
Do we know if FIRST is going to officially take on this new level as part of the program?
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More importantly, the answer to this question. No we do not know yet, but we are hoping to get that answer as soon as possible. We're collecting feedback (such as yours), surveys from our teams, audience and as much information as we can to show FIRST that this would be a great program.
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Originally Posted by Matt2081
And if FIRST doesn't, will the competition still happen next year? I don't want to send my Electrical/Software guys off with the task of building a quad-copter this summer if there's no competition (but I very much hope there is)...
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As of now, we can't say for sure. We're going to continue to try and push, perhaps continue it as a demonstration. But regardless, we have a lot of people (that would be on teams) that seem to be interested and perhaps we could do several different scrimmages, and again show FIRST that this would be a great addition to their program. So I would suggest YES! MAKE A QUAD-COPTER! It's great fun...sometimes (like all robots).
I am going to be working with my quad-copter and my team over the summer and I know several others may as well. So feel free to PM me.
Any more questions about the program in general e-mail CollegiateAerialRobotics 'at' gmail.com
so we can keep you updated on what will be happening for next year.