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Re: Limitations too far?
While I have heard a lot of complaints about this year’s game and it restraints, I would like to point out that this year’s game is going to allow every team, new and old to learn something new, and isn’t this one of the things FIRST wants us to do. It is true that veteran teams have been able to design very affective drive trains in the past few years because the playing surface has not changed. By changing the playing surface, as well as restricting the use of the different wheels, FIRST has forced every team to be innovative and learn in the process.
As for the restrictions, I have found that the engineering field always has restrictions or constraints of some kind. Actually, I have found that designing a robot for a FIRST competition is one of the more open ended chanlleges that you can undertake. With this said, in my opinion, the restrictions that FIRST have put in place are there to promote new and creative designs, insure that a team does not gain an unfair advantage except through creative design, for safety reasons, and so that all the robots can properly interact with certain field elements ( i.e. the trailer or the operator interface).
For those of you expecting to see robots with a common theme in their design and function, you are entirely correct. This has always happened in the past. Just because two robots are both shooters with a turret doesn’t mean they have the same design. When you look closer you may very well find that the two robots have very striking differences. I would suggest to everyone to not judge a robot by its shell. Get closer and take a look at its guts and see what it’s made of. Sometimes seeing the subtle differences in designs can be a very inspirational thing.
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Erik Wood
Team 836 "The RoboBees"
- 2015 Regional Chairman's Award Winner - Palmetto Regional
- 2013 Regional Chairman's Award Winner - Palmetto Regional
- 2012 Regional Chairman's Award Winner - Chesapeake Regional
- 2011 Regional Chairman's Award Winner - Chesapeake Regional
http://www.robobees.org
http://www.growingSTEMS.org
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