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Because I wasn't paying very good attention, I missed this thread when it first started. A few people have already heard my views on this but I think I'll state them here anyway (I've been meaning a good post on this since about Nationals but it always got pushed to the bottom of the queue of things I had to do).
I think that the loosening of restrictions on what components can be used is the complete wrong direction for FIRST to go. In general, by loosening the restrictions it has made many parts of the competition easier. My problem wouldn't be with the competition being easier if that's all that happened. Because the competition becomes easier, more teams design more complicated robots. Basically, this raises the bar for everyone meaning that if you want to compete you must have a more complicated robot.
Now, that may not sound like a bad thing (after all, what's wrong with a competitive environment?), but the key comes down to what happens when a more complicated robot is designed. In general, the more complicated the robot the less involved the students will be with its design and construction. It's a simple issue of skill level and experience. As the robots get more complicated, it's obvious then that there will be less student involvement and more engineer involvement. This is not the direction that FIRST should be headed.
Now, because of the above, it may seem that I'm against complicated robots. I'm not. I don't think that teams should be forbidden from designing complicated robots. I just think that perhaps FIRST shouldn't encourage it and make it easier.
Matt
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