[Swan217]

Originally Posted by KenWittlief

How can you possible think 8 kids with one mentor in a HS shop class can EVER compete against a team with 30 students, 20 engineers, and the entire assests and resources of GM at their beck and call?

Would you think those 8 kids could design and build CARS in their shop class and out sell GM, or any other corporation? Then why do you think they can do the same designing a robot?!

Teams with big money and vast resources are going to be top competitors - this is not a question of fairness, its reality! If FIRST gave you from now until the sun winks out, that wont change anything.

Ken, I think you've hit the nail on the head here. There is too much of this "levelling the playing field" talk. If a team doesn't have 10 engineers and 5 teachers and 40 students, is that the fault of FIRST or of the team? If the team wanted to compete on a "level" playing field with these teams, then they'd find a way to do it - increase fundraising activity, promotions, etc. This whole thing has nothing to do with "levelling the playing field."

That being said, there is no reason that a team should be artificially stopped from innovating their design once the product is shipped. Engineering at a big business never stops when they release their product. If a team has the resources to maintain their pace making spare parts or upgrades after they ship the robot, I believe that they should keep doing so. If you don't, then the next week or two should be a good time to relax and unwind.

The line is already drawn at the competition. You must recreate the upgrades from scratch at the competition. You are only allowed 25 lbs of FABRICATED ITEMS and must follow all of the rest of rules R21-R29. This makes the fixit windows redundant and pointless.

It's like one class I had. After each test, we had a 2 minute "pencil-down contemplation period" followed by a 2 minute "open note" period. The contemplation period is pointless, because if you're not done with the test by this point, the two minute open note part isn't going to get you much further. The open note period only helps the people that have an answer or two "on the tip of their pencil" and need a slight reminder, and since they're most likely already done with the test at this point, they spend the "contemplation period" twiddling their thumbs.

The same can be related to this issue. The teams that are struggling to get their robot together before ship aren't going to be helped by these Fixit windows, since they probably don't have the resources anyways, and the teams that do have the resources have probably already made extra parts during the season and are most likely using the time off for further upgrades. These robots are most likely far more complicated anyways, and if you can successfully build a complicated robot, and have it work beautifully, then you should be able to take all the time you want perfecting your "practice" bot. You still only have the Thursday of the competition and 25 lbs of material to do the same tweaks on your competition bot.