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Unread 27-04-2015, 13:50
Pretzel Pretzel is offline
Ex-Driver
AKA: Tyler
FRC #1619 (Up-A-Creek Robotics)
Team Role: Alumni
 
Join Date: Nov 2013
Rookie Year: 2012
Location: Colorado
Posts: 161
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Re: 900's Championship Cheesecaking Chronicles

I was a bit disappointed when I saw the harpoons field-side without them being ever deployed, but I imagine it was great fun and a real learning process to create an entirely new robot from scratch in only a matter of hours. I'll bet it was quite inspirational for all who were involved, both on the "donor" team (1114), the "recipient" team (900), and the other teams on the alliance (148 and 1923). You could even say the fact that some think it was a horror show is merely a form of recognition of their achievements in such a short time schedule.

While I understand that teams and individuals (me included) get attached to their specific robots, I fail to see the downsides of allowing teams to help others improve their robots. My team sends out members of our electrical, mechanical, and software sub-teams to help out anyone who asks on Thursday and Friday at regional events, and has even gone so far as to assist in building a robot on Thursday with a team that ended up on the winning alliance come Saturday! I personally would have loved to have experienced what the members of all four of those teams went through to design, build, inspect, and tweak a design like that in a matter of hours. I find the idea of collaborating with some of the greatest well-known minds in FRC (and even those who aren't well known!) to create an elegant solution to a problem immensely inspiring. Cheesecaking also helps people who enjoy the competition aspect more than the inspiration by creating a more competitive environment. If teams weren't allowed to make changes after the six weeks, except to replace broken parts, the whole year would go on looking like week one events.

Cheesecaking is something that, to me at least, is a great example of people working together to accomplish a difficult task in as little time as possible. That's what you will be expected to do in the workforce, even if it means taking cues from your competitors. Rebuilding is a part of the iterative design process and should not be feared to the extent that it is for some.

On the topic of the harpoons themselves, I can't wait to read the paper on them! I stopped by 1114's pits on Friday during lunch to see if I could take a look at their robot and was surprised instead by the four harpoons in the process of being assembled. I'm looking forward to hopefully seeing them successfully deployed at IRI this July, so I might be able to see them in action!
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Last edited by Pretzel : 27-04-2015 at 13:52.
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