Quote:
Originally Posted by the programmer
Michael, in the end, once you bag your robot, you can build as many practice robots as you want but all you can do is fine tune the one you have in the bag. By opening up the build season, you can look at competitions, see what works, and build a completely new robot from scratch. The majority of teams can't do that. By keeping the six week build season, you're limited to minor changes to your robot, which can be achieved without a practice robot. In my opinion, this helps low resource teams be competitive and allows teams to dial down their schedule after build season.
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Erik,
Please define "minor changes"
I'm not sure you understand the scope of work some teams are accomplishing within the current rules set.
References:
- 2011 Minibots
- 1678's 2015 Can Grabbers
- 1114's 2015 Harpoons
- 973's 2015 robot between their 1st and 2nd regional
- 1678's entire 2013 robot (minus drivetrain)
1678's 2013 robot is my favorite example. The hanger, shooter and pick up system were entirely different between stop-build and CMP (we actually took the pick-up system as carry-on on the plane to Saint Louis!)
I understand where you are coming from. However, this "building robots from scratch" you are talking about, which puts low-resource teams at a disadvantage, already happens. We just pay more to do it because this large plastic bag gets in our way every year
-Mike