[tkwetzel]

Originally Posted by Charlie B

The difference is that these products are designed and manufactured specifically for FIRST robotics. They would not be used for anything else.

I admire the entrepreneurial spirit, and I'm tempted to use the products myself, but I'm afraid that this could eventually lead to a situation that would compromise FIRST's objectives.

Now I can buy a transmission component, or an entire transmission. Why not a chassis, or a chassis with transmissions, wheels, axles, chains, sprockets? It might come in four wheel, six wheel, or omni wheel versions. All I would have to do is drop in the kit parts and I'd have a box that moves. Then I could focus on designing and building the appendages. Or maybe I could buy those too, with a guarantee that they'll get to me before the ship date. The deluxe package would include two sets of everything, one to ship and one to practice with. If I were on a tighter budget, at least I could buy a "Game Analysis Report" a week after kickoff, to save me the trouble of coming up with my own strategies.

Maybe I'm stretching the possibilities too far, but maybe not. Might the focus of FIRST move away from engineering? Is it possible that teams would spend all their time raising money to buy the best "standard" components, at the expense of the design experience?

One could argue that "standard" components allow under-resourced teams to build something that moves. But FIRST already does a pretty good job of providing the components for a very basic robot.

Andy, I'm sure that you're started your business intending to benefit FIRST, and not just to make a buck. I would hate to see you lose time and money, but I'm honestly concerned about what FIRST-custom products might mean for FIRST over the long term.

Question for Dave Lavery... Should the rule makers consider disallowing products that are designed and manufactured specifically for FIRST robotics?

I believe that there is still a lot of engineering going on with the rest of the robot and assembly. NASA didn't develop all of the parts on the Mars rovers, but they had to integrate them all together which is still a huge part in engineering. Also, I expect to see many teams continue building their own gearboxes, because they have the resources and the will. As mentioned by Cory, this will help the teams with fewer resources. This includes any teams that may have only a handful of members and struggle to get a robot completed because of the lack of man hours. I think that these teams with fewer resources will be able to focus more on a certain part of the robot and will gain a more complete engineering know-how from a more in-depth design of other parts. I see no problems with this, but as you mention, if appendages and such become available (I think this is a long ways away) then FIRST might have to look at revising some rules, but until then, I think that AndyMark is benefitting all of FIRST.