[ChrisH]

Going back to the first post in this thread, I am wondering one thing. Why, oh why, is it assumed that there can only be one design for a component?

Pardon me, but the BeachBots currently have three grippers in various stages of construction. Each uses a different actuation system and has different strengths and weaknesses. But we won't know which works best until we actually put them on our practice bot and drive them around. Fortunately, we planned for this and merely need to remove a single bolt and secure wires and or pnuematic tubes to make the change over. By the way our "real" robot will also be built to make a quick change-over possible. It does wonders for maintainability. Having a spare arm that you can put on in 5 minutes or less intimidates the hardware into not breaking.

In the end, it is probable that none of the three grippers we are building now will be the final design. We will learn from each and make adjustments so that the final result works even better.

In terms of resouces, the BeachBots are a medium resource team. We have about 12 students and several mentors. But we get a lot done because we don't spend time arguing about what we should do or how it should be designed. Instead we put the effort into exploring new concepts, builing prototypes so we can demonstrate how well (or not) they work and refining our designs until they not only work but are elegant in their operation.

So stop whining and let them build their design and you build yours, just do it in such a way that they can easily be changed out and may the better design win!