[ghostmachine360]

Originally Posted by makahn64

I guess I'd like to see a bill of materials. If you had to build this robot in the real world it would cost a lot more than $4K. IMHO it's about time FRC started leveling the playing field for teams that don't have a NASA facility to build the robot for them.

We have a level playing field. They have the sponsors because they've gone above and beyond to excel in what they do. It's like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhHONpmlxPc

Your logic is like saying Michael Jordan was a great basketball player because of the shoes. He was the best before & after those shoes. Those students that you just discounted with your comment; they worked tirelessly & in seamless collaboration with mentors/sponsors/their community to push the envelope in exceeding the images of extravagant gameplay that FIRST hoped to cultivate within its students. They would probably still be doing this even with the simplest of equipment.

I had the pleasure of attending a Week 0 event locally as a referee & as a member of GeorgiaFIRST. While walking around, I found a robot that looked simply amazing. 4 cylinder shooter, ridiculously exceptional drive train, and an ingenious corkscrew system to adjust their shooting & Frisbee loading. It was something to look at. Wish I had a picture to put here.

When I asked about their materials to create these amazing things, you know what they told me majority of their materials came from?

Their local junkyard. They have the drive, and they have the ingenuity to create something with the simplest of materials and absence of things my old team would consider to be a given right, and they created something I expect to see in the elimination rounds at Peachtree.

The Robonauts are the best because they do the things that are hard, and they have reached and surpassed the point in their collective walk in where they are stepping outside their previous comfort zones, and endeavor to do greater things than others have ever thought or attempted to do. That's the secret to their robot; not the money or the access, but the individual heart and spirit in everyone that steps inside that workshop to go big, and become the best. To finish my annoyance with your statement, here's a quote from President Kennedy that a mentor from another team showed me when I was writing a speech for the Peachtree Regional (and it fits with this team):

“We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.”

Again, great robot, great students and mentors; and overall, great team. Makes me proud to know one of the alumni from my alma mater assists as a mentor in this amazing collaborative.

End of rant.