Quote:
Originally Posted by thefro526
Regardless, I doubt we'll see wide scale proliferation of 'ready' made mechanisms any time soon, due in part to the nature of FRC games. The fact that the game is unknown (at least at some level) to even major FRC suppliers would mean that they'd have to prototype, brainstorm, and produce any relevant mechanisms in a very, very short period of time, and then have the produced in an equally short period of time - or take a gamble on having a series of components designed and ready for production (or produced) by the time kick off comes around. The counter argument to this would be Vex's Chassis from 2013, since it was basically designed, built, and ready to be shipped within a week or so from kick-off, so it is "Possible" - but reasonable to do with mechanisms? Maybe.
If anything, we're long over due to see the wide scale production of 'build your own _______' kits geared towards FRC robots. 'Black Box' mechanisms like Ball Conveyors, Elevators, Telescoping Arms, Etc are well now well understood enough that someone with the resources could very easily manufacture a kit containing the 'tricky bits' of the mechanism with the end users supplying raw materials in the form of aluminum extrusion or similar. It's funny to see that there are actually a handful of teams that currently use this method internally and have refined their designs to the point where the only thing that ever seems to change is the size of the system, but not the construction method...
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I completely agree. It's not a particularly good business practice for companies to build "frisbee shooter" and "frisbee intake" systems for the number of logistic and technical problems mentioned in this thread. Even if they could see us "2014 manipulator I" or "2014 manipulator II," I doubt most teams would use them. They wouldn't have any reason to think that they would actually work, and using them would probably raise questions of morality.
On the other hand, someone is going to make a lot of money making components for 233 style arms, 254 style elevators, good arm components, and decent worm gearboxes. There's a lot of "secret sauce" that goes into a 233 telescoping arm say, as well as manufacturing technology, and it would make a lot of money as a great COTS solution. Teams will buy them in droves if they're available, well made and useful.