Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Hibner
How about team 45 from 1999-2002 and their innovations in bringing gear shifting to FIRST. That eventually led to AndyMark, which I'm sure everyone has heard of.
Other good ones:
67 in 1998: the first omni wheel in FIRST.
47 in 1998: the first swerve drive system.
27 in 2002: the first Archimedes Screw ball storer/sorter that I saw.
111 in 2001: the first help-your-partners ramp-bot to be successful.
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All of these robots, along with 236 in 2002 (also were one of the pioneers of the archimedes screw ball management systems), 45 in multiple years for pioneering the "roller claw," 111 in 2003 for their autonomous, and 357 in 2005 (?) for pioneering the use of mecanum drives in FIRST.
Many of the robots mentioned in this had cool robots that aren't typical, but not all of them were incredibly innovative. Power take-offs and gas springs for hanging existed in 2004, though most of the lineage of these devices is lost to time for most teams (so with the exceptions of a few, many of the devices re-emergence in 2010 was due to a new set of innovations). Some of the other innovations mentioned are really cool, but not as concrete in terms of impact. For instance, the greater usage of complex linkages in FIRST bots is one of the cooler sets of mechanical innovations these days, but can be attributed to a number of teams (217, 229, 1565, 1625, etc.) and doesn't always hold true from year-to-year. Random unorthodox mechanisms, while they may be cool, aren't always the most innovative. And "game breaking" strategies is really 71's calling card, regardless of how close 469 came this year.
And on another note, how about 254 and 60 for their pioneering of the concept of inter-team collaboration?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris is me
I'm going to give it to 1625 here... 6 wheel swerve is essentially "the best of both worlds" and doesn't require complicated programming or chaining just to get a zero point turn like most swerve drives. It's also not that much heavier and eliminates the need for transmissions; all reductions are done with chain and a gear reduction on the module. I wanted to see 1625 swerve in front of 469 this year...
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I don't think that "most" swerve drives require either of those things to accomplish a zero-point turn, or certainly not to any greater extent than 1625. The variants in-line with 118's style of swerve drive might, but there are plenty of varieties that do not.