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Originally Posted by Dave Campbell
This post brings to question the shipping deadline. Does the FIRST "Out-of-hands" deadline mean that we ship the robot and ALL other work ceases? Or can we continue to improve the machine and program after the deadline? I know we don't make spares, or changes after the ship date, but how does driver / programming practice fit in? I have always interpreted the rules to mean we ship, cease ALL work, and pick up again on the practice day of our first regional.
Does the work (driving practice, strategy, machine design / analysis) continue after the shipping deadline? If so, I would think that a second machine would allow teams to work in that area outside of the ship deadline and far from "gracious professionalism." If not, a second machine would be an excellent tool to use to train drivers during the build season while the final product is being manufactured.
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All of these questions will be answered in the 2004 rules book. Don't assume the rules will stay the same as they have in previous years. Last years rules never had anything against programming for a test bot after shipping the competition legal bot. They did however have rules on making new parts/replacement parts. As for practice driving on a 2nd bot that you made during the 6 week period, that is perfectly legal to previous FIRST rulings. Some teams even built a 2nd copy bot after the first bot had shipped, however with there only being 9 days from ship to the first regional weekend that will probably be a much less likely solution this year. After the rules book comes out this year if anything isn't clear to you and your team about working after shipping you can ask on the FIRST questions board, and I'm sure Brandon will open up the Q&A forum this year as it was very helpful last year.
Having a 2nd robot as Raul said is a very big help for driver training. I know from experiance on my high school team that even a robot with a similar style and speed drive can be a big help if you can't build a complete 2nd bot. My teams 2001 robot had a very similar drive at the same speed as our 2003 drive so after shipping we used that robot to practice on a bit. I know newer teams probably won't have the luxury of old robots just lying around waiting to be driven, but maybe other teams in your area do. But anyways, building a 2nd robot is a big advantage and if your team has the funding and people willing to try it, I would suggest giving it a try.