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Originally Posted by Steve W
Quoted was rule 16 but if you look at previous rule you will read:
<R15> Prior to the Kick-off: Before the formal start of the robot Build Season, teams are encouraged to think as much as they please about their robots. They may develop prototypes, create proof-of-concept models, and
conduct design exercises. Teams may gather all the raw stock materials and COTS items they want. But absolutely no fabrication or assembly of any elements intended for the final robot is permitted prior to the Kick-off presentation. Any MECHANISMS assembled prior to the Kick-off presentation may be used for prototyping or educational purposes, but MAY NOT be used on the final ROBOT.
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ok, you can design and build a proof of concept mechanism, or even prototypes, but the other rule says you must 'design' all the parts you need after the kickoff meeting.
If you copy a tranmission design from CD that another team posted in a white paper from previous years, or even if you want to re-use a transmission that your team designed two years ago, it sure sounds to me like FIRST is saying "No! we want this years team to design anything that is not in the KOP and is not COTS themselves"
And I take that to mean, even if they have to reinvent what the team has done in previous years.
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Originally Posted by <R16>
During the Build Season: During the period between the Kick-off and robot shipment deadline, teams are to design and fabricate all the components and mechanisms required to complete their robot.
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I can certainly see the reason for doing that. If you have a team that has been around for 5 or 10 years, it would be very easy to reuse great subsystem designs from previous years. But the students on the team this year would not be able to go through the design cycle for those parts of the robot, they would not have to brainstorm and think about the best way to build even simple things like a battery holder or a motor mount
and isnt that what the whole idea of this program is? To present the students with a interesting and difficult design challenge, and have them tackle it, from start to finish?