[Madison]

I think that we've seen far less exchange of specific information about mechanical systems than we have of other pieces of information because there are a significant number of factors which affect the effectiveness and implementation of such systems that first need to be clearly defined before they're useful.

The single largest problem is that very, very few teams produce production-ready drawings of even a handful of parts of their robots, let alone entire systems. One could argue that the most effective systems are those that are most likely to have near-complete models and drawings available, but it may be that these teams also use a paperless process.

Similarly, many teams do not model their robots with an attention to detail that sufficiently fills in the blanks, necessitating an unreasonable amount of effort to support sharing that work with others. Further, if one wanted to go so far as to create a shared repository of this information, there're difficulties in standardizing file formats and naming schemes, among other things.

I understand that you're proposing that some cross-section of the FIRST community join together to create drivetrain designs that address a lot of the existing difficulties with the existing efforts of teams, but that in and of itself has some of its own challenges. I couldn't, in good faith, provide to anyone an untested platform marketed as a turnkey solution for their drivetrain woes. Someone, somewhere, needs to foot the bill in producing and testing these designs in the real world, identifying manufacturing and assembly inefficiences and correcting them, and updating the models and drawings to reflect those changes. It's not an insignificant amount of work.

Beyond that, it's asking a lot of a rookie team (or many veterans) that they be able to successfully interpret modeled components or production drawings. I've worked with some pretty amazing people -- both in FIRST and in industry -- and even they've had trouble wrapping their head around how a virtual mechanical system might operate. Often during the build season, after days of working on a part or system, someone will say, "Oh, I get it," and finally understand what my work represented.

I'm not against the notion of a collaborative effort, necessarily, but I think it's worth pointing out that there's a lot more to it than throwing together some models and calling it a day. What you're proposing here is akin to bringing a product to market and requires all of the pomp and circumstance that goes along with it -- including a bit of congratulations and celebration when it happens.