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Re: Dangerous precedent set by Q&A 461: Loaning Parts/Assemblies to other teams
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon Stratis
This might be where you have a problem with the answer. What they're saying here is that my team can't build something, hand it to your team and say "put this on your robot so you can now do X." It's easy to take that to extremes... But combined with the previous statement about helping teams it's clear that it shouldn't be taken to extremes. I can help you by giving you a COTS part, even if there may have been a slight modification or two (like attaching connectors, assembling a gearbox in the standard, intended way, etc). In that case I'm not building anything, I'm giving you a COTS part that may be slightly used. But I can't build a ramp and give it to you to attach to your robot. I can't give you a specially designed winch to use to lift totes. That's going way, WAY beyond helping by supplying a few COTS pieces.
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I guess this is where the debate will diverge for people. To me, you've made a lot of assumptions in here about COTS parts, slightly modified COTS parts that are not outlined by a rule somewhere.
Why is the mechanical structure the end all be all? A can hook could be as simple as a tube with a bent piece of sheet metal on it. What about the software to control it in both teleop and autonomous? There is often a lot more work than 'here put this on' even if a team was given a complete mechanical solution.
I'm not condoning the above action, I just think the trivialization of integrating even the most simple mechanisms is a little much.
-Brando
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MORT (Team 11) '01-'05 :
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