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Originally Posted by Kris Verdeyen
That said, what we have here is a clear case of the slippery slope in action. For the past few years, we have seen an increase in the way we as a community are allowing ourselves to build parts. While the rules explicity address some of these ways(such as the addition of suppliers other than Small Parts), others, such as AM.biz, extreme collaboration, and the bringing of practice / spare parts robots to competitions are not, and have been driven largely by the FIRST community itself.
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Kris,
I want to address a few of your statements. It is unjust to lump AM.biz into the same group as "extreme collaboration". As the name implies this is a business just like Johnston Motor or Fafnir Bearing. The company makes premade assys that are subject to the max dollar rule each team must follow. Premade assys. purchased by teams are rarely if ever, assembled or manufactured after kick off.
Extreme collaboration is a subject that has been discussed in other threads throughout this year. Search for those threads if you want a better understanding of the issue.
The bringing of practice/proto robots took a bad rap last year. All of those robots that I saw (and the one we brought) contained spare components assembled by this year's team under the rules. I hope you are not asking that we disassemble a perfectly good practice robot in order to bring spares to a competition.
Finally, there is a big difference between starting on components before kickoff (even if they are functionally equivalent to ready made) and working after kickoff. Ready made components available to every team after kickoff are subject to the same pitfalls of back orders, shipping, and cost. Equivalents are not, especially those fabricated before kickoff. Cutting a large piece of aluminum plate into smaller pieces is fabrication, plain and simple.
With that said, I am all for using the fall to instruct and practice the techniques needed to be safe and productive during build. The components cannot be used on the new robot but the skills learned can be invaluable during the rushed build season. Count me as a resounding "NO" to any work on the 2005 robot before January 8, 2005.