My views on collaboration
Interface :collaboration
I fully support this. I think it would be incredibly cool and effective if two teams would create complimentary robots that worked terrifically together while still being competitive apart. It would be complicated and difficult but exciting and rewarding. It might be risky for competition but the potential rewards in competition are great. If, say, it were suggested that 179 and 180 do this I would back it.
Full collaboration:
I definitely see the benefits to doing this. More minds and resources directed at a problem usually results in a better to solution to the problem as shown by the exploits of the Triplets and 254-968? Twins. It is also cheaper to build identical robots together than the same number of different robots separately. Another huge advantage that I think has been overlooked is that the collaborate teams that I have seen have all built another identical practice robot. I cannot stress enough about how big an advantage this is. This basically lengthens a collaborate teams build season since they have an extra robot to modify\test\program\practice with during the fix-it windows. I know my team would be much more effective if we didn't have to rebuild and program our robot during our competitions.
Yet, if it were suggested that my team fully collaborate with another I would be firmly against it. For me it would take away from the fun and the amount of experience gained. I like seeing six very different robots on the field competing. However, I do not think that complete collaborate is cheating. I also think that if teams want to calibrate like this than they are welcome to. I just don't like it and don't think it would be good for me or my team (selfish I know but that's the way it is).
