[Clem1640]

First, given that FIRST competition is not life-or-death, Darwinian survival of the fittest competition, I would rather compete poorly than not at all (lord knows I've done enough of the former). Nuff said about that.

3 years ago, we initiated a summer program to explore technology arenas which we believed would benefit the team. Each summer, we select one or two areas to explore. We do half-scale designs and build using VEX parts. We test them. We develop software. We make observations. We do the math. In the end, we take the concept to a hypothetical FRC-scale design in Inventor®.

So, first summer we worked on drivetrains (6wd & "twitch"). Second summer, we worked on drivetrains (Pivot Drive). In both cases we were able to exploit the knowledge developed in the following year. Working on drivetrain is easy. There are a lot of options. Executing the more challenging options during build season alone is very difficult. You know that the robot will need to move and a particularly effective drivetrain can provide a significant competitive advantage.