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Originally Posted by Cory
What these products will mean for FIRST over the long run is that a team that would never in a million years be able to make a shifting transmission, or omni wheels, can now do so, and THAT levels the playing field. The teams with all the resources will be able to do more and more every year, while the teams without will fall behind at the same rate. This isn't going to make the powerhouse teams stronger, it's going to give the teams that struggle to put a moving robot on the field a chance to be much more competitive, and that's what everyone loves to see.
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I see your point. I understand that the competition provides a lot of the motivation for participating in FIRST, and that under-resourced teams can get frustrated (from personal experience), but the competition is just the frosting on the cake. The design/build experience is the important thing, and the availability of off-the-shelf robot parts discourages home-grown design.
Our own team is a good example. We designed and built a shifting transmission our second season. It was a big stretch for us, and given the choice, we very well might have chosen to purchase transmissions, especially if "everyone else" were doing it. We would never have learned how to choose gear ratios, whether to use roller bearings or bronze bushings, how to keep keys in their shafts, and a thousand other things.
As an engineer, I use components every day without knowing every detail of how they were designed, because I can make better products in less time that way. But my company is in this to make money in a competitive world, not to educate me. If FIRST were all about winning competitions, I'd say bring on the best components money can buy, and I'd tell the students to get out of the way while I did the design.
I don't think that a few "standard" components available today are ruining FIRST, but think of how it might evolve. One company today, (that I know of), why not a dozen? Transmissions now, why not complete moving boxes? Where do you draw the line?
If FIRST is doing it's job, then any team can build a box that moves from the kit of parts. The Andymark components can help a team exceed the basic requirements of moving, and have a better chance to win, but FIRST isn't all about winning, it's about learning from the engineering experience. If we've lost teams because they can't win, then I would argue that they need to set their expectations realistically, learn patience, and remember why they're in this. We're a small high school, with only juniors and seniors. We'll never be in the big leagues, but we're growing the program anyway.
Maybe the frustration of struggling teams can be reduced by giving them their own competition class, a class for FIRST-standard drive trains only.