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Originally Posted by Gdeaver
Forget the 2006 rules for a minute and think if this is a direction that the First competition should go. It's just a drive train assembly now but in a few years could escalate into entire robots being ordered. Then we would have the robot procurement season instead of the build season. What starts off as a single assembly can lead down a path I do not think First should go. I believe some how there needs to be a distinction between parts and components and entire assemblies. How does this development fit in with the vision of First. If First becomes a specing event and fund raising event I'm out of here.
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How do you figure someone is going to buy an entire robot?
The maximum price for a single component is $400. The max spending limit for the robot is $3500. I don't see any reason to believe anyone would fabricate something like an arm that changes year to year. It would simply be too impractical. It would have to be redesigned to fit each game. With that design and machine time, it certainly wouldn't be profitable for someone to sell one for $400 ea.
I doubt we'll see anything more than the current style products from AndyMark, and Outback, if they get off the ground. So far as we know (and for the last decade+) robots have always needed to drive. Since we'd continue to expect robots need to drive, there will always be a market for a certain subset of drive systems, like the ones AndyMark is selling.
The idea of someone buying their entire robot prefabricated, in pieces, from a FIRST specific vendor is so implausible that I wouldn't even give it a second thought.