Thread: BattleBots on Comedy Central & NEW Innovation FIRST products
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Unread 23-06-2002, 23:17
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#0047 (ChiefDelphi)
  
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Re: Battlebots: geez...
Posted by Dan.

Student on team #10, BSM, from Benilde-St. Margaret's and Banner Engineering.

Posted on 6/27/2000 10:25 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Battlebots: geez... posted by Lora Knepper on 6/27/2000 5:09 AM MST:



::This is real life engineering. There are
::restrictions to everything and anything, and you
::learn to deal, or you find another profession. What
::are you learning with Battlebots? To beat the
::living daylights out of each other?? Obviously not
::to accept the challenges of real world engineering.

I agree that FIRST's contraints encourage creativity but it's exactly those restrictions that **limit** your field of knowledge. Brushless motors, gasoline engines, foam-filled rubber tires, magnesium, kevlar, and carbon fiber never enter into the picture in FIRST.

I did not order and read the 40+ lbs. of catalogs and literature because of FIRST--it was because of BattleBots.

There are still constraints in BattleBots (beyond the competition's restrictions.) But the constraints are amorphous and different for every person. I have limited money, limited time, limited tools that can work with limited materials, and limited knowledge. This last one--limited knowledge--is my (and pretty much anyone's) greatest constraint. Even though I can use any material I do not know about every material. So the more I learn the better I do.

These constraints are FAR more difficult to work with. No one gives you a neat little box of parts and catalog with which you must build. It is FIRST--not BattleBots--that does not accept the 'challenges of real engineering.' The constraints on FIRST are there to make it *easier.* Engineers at NASA or GM have it much harder because they have ***very few constraints*** on budget and materials; it is up to them to stay on the cutting edge of numerous fields.
FIRST and BattleBots are both awesome competitions. However, they are apples & oranges and can not be compared to each other because they have different purposes and different means.

Ever since I got into BattleBots/Robot Wars I've become really interested in engineering design theory. I've put a link below to a little webpage with my own thoughts on the subject that will be soon be linked to my BattleBots webpage.
:-Dan





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