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Originally Posted by dlavery
Temporary tangent:
Is there a citation somewhere for that claim? Right off the top of my head, I can think of at least eight different robotic competition programs just in the U.S. that involve simultaneous multiple robots on the field, and only one of them is 1-on-1. And I am pretty sure that number will double or triple with just a little bit of research.
-dave
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No, there is no citation. I think Phil was recalling a discussion I had with him several times. I believe I used the number "8" in my discussions with Phil because I had done limited "ad hoc" research on the competitions that run more than one at a time and had come up with 8, but in no way did I mean than those "8" were all that existed. Also, I put a disclaimer on my original comments to Phil, which was "K-12" student robotics competitions. There are also several college/university related robotics competitions out there that are and have been running many robots simultaneously for quite awhile.
However, I too agree that the discussion of "multiple robots simultaneously" is one that has some bearing on this discussion for sure and I thank Phil for bringing it up.
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Originally Posted by dlavery
I get concerned when I hear anyone from a student on a rookie team all the way up to a member of the Board Of Directors talking about "competing" with the other programs. Without a doubt, there are those within FIRST, BotBall, VEX, BEST, BBIQ and MATE that are concerned about "being overtaken" by "the other guys." This is a horrifically inane and patently foolish viewpoint.
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Yep.
I've seen it.
I couldn't agree more.
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Originally Posted by dlavery
FIRST, BotBall, VEX, BEST, BBIQ and MATE reach a combined total of less than 7% of the high schools in the United States. 93% of the market is currently untapped.
... SNIP...
The very best growth model is one where these organizations all work together to their mutual benefit, to accelerate their combined growth rate, and to reduce their own costs of identifying and recruiting school participation (can anyone say "coopetition"?)
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Amen. AMEN. YES!!!!
..and, if you look REALLY REALLY close the seeds for this have been planted.
A few years ago I had the pleasure of being a part of this:
http://www.tsarobotics.org
Sadly, there once was a lot more content there than you see now. The list of attendees was a who's who from the robotics education/competition world. Key folks involved in Botball, FRC, FLL, the old FVC, Bots IQ (they got rid of the word "battle" on purpose because they felt it sent the wrong message) were there. I think people involved in MATE were there too, but I'm not sure. Some were national reps, some were regional reps, some invited guests, some there in an "official" capacity, and some not. All were hand picked for specific purposes however. Jeff Seaton spoke, Vince Wilczynski spoke, Alex Slocum spoke. Several more collegiate Robotics Educators spoke. Robin Shoop was there, so was Dan Larochelle and his boss from Intelitek. So was Donn Griffith. Other large corporations such as DuPont had reps on site. The whole thing was "put on" by the Technology Student Association and funded by an NSF grant. It's interesting to note that TSA does not currently have a pure "Robotics Competition" as a part of their national events, but they clearly see the value and some of their regional and state chapters have begun to adopt some VEX initiatives, etc.
The aftermath of that collective effort produced this document:
http://www.tsarobotics.org/roboticsframework.html
"The Standards-Based Competition Curriculum Development Framework"
So, although this was a seemingly one-time event, look at what it produced and look at what is possible. Also know that some relationships that were previously non-existent or somewhat contentious before continue today in a positive way.
There are things your team and organization can do to help grow these relationships. Our team is fortunate enough to be a part of a larger club that is also home to a TSA chapter. Because of that, wonderful stuff like this occurs:
http://www.tsaweb.org/LMHS-Portable%20Inspiration
http://www.usfirst.org/who/content.aspx?id=11844
I also had the privilege of helping to edit some of the content for robotevents.com - specifically the mission statement is what I'm most proud of. Here's a home where all of these organizations can "get together" if they so choose.
It was also very encouraging to see representatives from other robotics competitions (including FRC from the Dallas Region) in the vendor/display area at the VRC World Championship in Dallas a few weeks ago.
I bet lots of teams and organizations on these boards do similar things and I bet there's lots more other teams can do locally to help bring these groups together as well.
Now, if someone can figure out how to line up all of the planets to bring all of these organizational leaders and key players together in an official capacity, with a slightly wider focus than the previous Robotics Education Symposium had, you'd earn an even BIGGER cookie than the one Pat Fairbank received.
Those of you who know me know I'm really into the Randy Pausch efficiency thing and there's no one task that I'd like to see accomplished more than our mission of inspiration for the socially conscious designers of the future. The model Dave proposes IS the best one and there's some evidence to show that it's possible and it CAN work.
For now, I'm choosing to be an optimist about these patents and will believe that they will never be enforced in ways that would slow the progress of our mission until I see otherwise.
Let's make this happen.
Namaste.