Posted by Joe Johnson, Engineer on team #47, Chief Delphi, from Pontiac Central High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.
Posted on 3/11/99 4:44 AM MST
In Reply to: Turn the tables posted by Tom Wible on 3/10/99 8:52 PM MST:
Believe me I want to win every FIRST competition our team enters. Long time readers of this forum will know that I was not a particular fan of this whole Alliance Thing (I know how great my team is, but you slugs our there? What do you know? ;-)
As you know, I have also tentatively giving the thumbs up to the new alliance format, but that has NOT changed my single mindedness in trying to get the entire Chief Delphi team to get behind the idea that WE TRY TO WIN.
Now, we also try to keep in mind larger goals. There are many ways of winning even if the FIRST website does not have your name high on the list of tournament results.
But, my point in proposing this "sharing" thing is that there are a lot of cool robots out there with very cool features and solution. I do not have the time to go around to 200 robots at the Nationals and take a magnifying glass to each, looking for engineering excellence. Further, even if I did, I would miss probably 50% or more because the innovation is not viewable from any angle.
SO... I propose that teams trade a little of "I've got mine" for some "Wow, that was really cool."
I am not talking about sharing the strategy teams used to design there robot or the really really important competitive edges teams feel they might have.
Let me give a few examples off the top of my head:
1) The Beatty/Hammond snap & lock arm from Torroid Terror
2) Chief Delphi's use of the seat motors as inputs to the drill transmissions in Ladder Logic
3) Lockheed Sander's telescoping PVC tube screw lift (it seems like they use it somehow every year
4) The turnable drive that Raytheon E-Systems-Greenville used in Torroid Terror
5) The Holonomic Wheels (look it up!) that GM-Milford Proving Ground/Huron Valley used in Ladder Logic
6) The Conveyor/Ball Remover the Lebanon used in Ladder Logic
7) The arm that GM-Powertrain/Pontiac Northern used in Torroid Terror
8) The goal topper lock mechanism that Beatty/Hammond used in Torroid Terror
9) The never ending nested lift that WildStang has used for 3 years now.
10) The use of one way roller clutches to do more than one function with one motor on the Chief Delphi machine used in Hexagon Havoc (Back then we only had 2 drill motors and 4 seat motors
The list goes on.
The point is that there is a lot of engineering excellence going on out there that is not getting any notice whatever.
I guess the feeling on our team is that we would exchange some of our trade secrets for some pats on the back.
Perhaps others would too. Or... Perhaps not.
Joe J.