Quote:
|
Originally Posted by sanddrag
No Dave, see without threaded fasteners you'd have to allow tape again 
Anyway, I think a rule that somehow stepped up quality in robots would be a nice thing (the no tape rule is a great start). I am aware that not every team has a 4 axis CNC mill (or any mill) or a Miller TIG welder (or any welder) or a whole tool chest full of nothing but the finest, however I've seen a lot of robots that are just kind of "barely hanging on" in the way of quality. I know almost every team is proud of their robot no matter what it looks like and they have every right to be. But I think outsiders tend to be more impressed with the CNCed, TIGed, water jetted, anodized, and powder coated machines that have been fully designed in CAD first. I'm not saying every robot should be as elaborate as that, but I think some sort of motivation needs to be given to teams to step into the world of professional grade quality fabrication. |
Everytime you bring up this topic, I don't see where you're heading.
The point of FIRST is not to create pretty robots. It's to teach kids about science, technology, and engineering.
In the sequence of events leading up to a FIRST competition, whether or not I was able to anodize or powdercoat my robot is entirely irrelevant to me. Making the robot look nice and professional does absolutely nothing towards inspiring kids and teaching them about the aforementioned topics.
You're focusing entirely on the robot. The robot is a means to an end. That end is not to make the most killer robot ever, or to make it look like it just came off the Ferarri showroom's floor.
FIRST doesn't exist for the benefit of outsiders who happen to attend competitions. These are machines being created by high school kids in six weeks. I wouldn't expect them to look professional.
If you're one of the teams that has time to make your bot look all spiffy, great, more power to you, but it should most definitely not be a priority when there's hundreds of teams that struggle just to field a reasonably competitive robot.
I'd much rather see an incentive to make people take the path less traveled, in order to create more inspiration.