Quote:
Originally Posted by DampRobot
Second, this wouldn't do anything to stop practice robots. If this restriction were in place, I would advocate very heavily on my team for them to create a practice robot, and run it with either an old C-Rio or a Arduino or something. Practice robots aren't just for practicing, they're mechanical systems development tools too. And it would create a massive "they're cheating because they're using a practice robot!" uproar when top teams do just that to stay competitive.
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Easy:
1) If you're using an arduino, you're already restricting yourself so heavily that you probably won't learn much, so I don't care. You certainly wouldn't be able to run/test PIDs, vision, or other really complex systems.
2) If you're using an old cRio, WPILib could be modified slightly each year so that it becomes very difficult to update and maintain your code between the "2013 code on 2012 crio" and "2013 code on 2013 crio" versions.
Also, all you'd get out of it would be practice (on a non-representative robot controller like an arduino or using an old version of WPILib). Since there'd be no withholding allowance in this hypothetical world, you wouldn't be able to tune or upgrade anything unless you planned on manufacturing that upgraded part in the pits at your competition.
It would obviously still be possible to make a practice robot (FIRST can't ban the building of robotic devices), but if rulechanges were in place to make it very difficult and make the payoff uncertain, fewer teams would do it, which in turn would mean fewer teams would feel the need to build one to keep up with the Joneses.