OK, here is an interesting rule change. Changing this rule would give us these positives:
- save over $1 million in team costs
- eliminate the need to build "practice" robots
- eliminate countless spare parts
- increase the level of play in FIRST
- allow software and autonomous development to flourish
- eliminate the need for crates (for 90% of teams)
- give teams more time to work on the robot
However, this rule change would also result in these negative aspects:
- enable teams to create "copycat" designs of winning robots
- provide another disadvantage to teams who live far from regionals
- eliminate the "back to normal" time after the ship date
- give teams more time to work on the robot (yes, it is a negative too)
- robot loading on Thursday morning would need to be coordinated differently
Eliminate the ship date. That would be one HUGE rule change.
Over the years, I have wavered on this issue. However, I strongly feel that the positives outweigh the negatives now. With the added importance of software development and the increase of teams who build a second robot every year, we might as well just keep the robots with us to the events.
Andy B.