Quote:
Originally Posted by Cory
In real life, if a COTS item will give 100% of the performance of a custom part, and meet all other required parameters, you're going to use the COTS part. That is a big part of engineering, and a valid strategy for FRC teams to use. This is sometimes just as useful for teaching the kids as it is to make something of your own.
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It seems to me like your argument is only correct if you assume that the primary goal of FRC is to create the best robot possible. In 'real life' you would buy the part to make the best robot possible, but in FIRST it is about the knowledge gained from the experiance. In FIRST you can screw up and you can try and bite off more than you can chew because its perfectly OK to learn from your mistakes. IN the real world you need to get it right the first time. Last year we did omni drive for the first time ever, and in the end that was a bad choice, but we all learned alot form the experiance that a two wheel two skid tank drive wouldn't have taught us. You learn so much more by designing and implementing something yourself than you do by entering a credit card number.