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Re: MAJOR TWEAKING
Posted by Ken Patton, Engineer on team #65, The Huskie Brigade, from Pontiac Northern High School and GM Powertrain.
Posted on 4/16/99 5:06 PM MST
In Reply to: MAJOR TWEAKING posted by Bill Beatty on 4/15/99 10:07 PM MST:
Bill-
I think being allowed to work on the robots during the 2-1/2 days after a regional is fine, because it gives the teams a chance to do development under the same 'crunch time' atmosphere as the six week period.
Our team has, in two of our three years, benefitted a from the extra days to make changes. Our first year ('97 Toroid Terror), we never even took the robot apart, just sent it from our only regional to the nationals. Our second year (Ladder Logic), we scrapped a wedger arm and added a much simpler/cheaper/better 2 ball gripper arm like the one Team 68 had. This year, we took our 'can' - which originally served as a device to load floppies into a pretty crappy bag - and attached it to our lift mechanism along with a motor to rotate it. We got rid of the bag. This change was made during the Sun/Mon/Tues time period after Chicago. We added another feature after Ypsi (again during the Sun/Mon/Tues time period) that will allow us to stay on the puck better, we hope.
So if you want to complain about someone, I guess we are a good candidate, because there's no doubt that we benefit from it. But.... we use crate materials, we do not make functional changes or new function parts except during the Sun/Mon/Tues period, and the spares we make during the 'off' time are functionally identical. I believe that we are obeying the letter and spirit of the rules. I think it makes the competitions more exciting because many of the robots are better as a result.
As long as the rules are the same for everyone, I think its okay to allow work on the robots in the days just after the regionals. I envy you and your team for getting it right the first time, and I certainly understand your point of view when you see other teams improving.
Good Luck in FL,
Ken
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