[jvriezen]

Actually, I like the Minibot arrangement. Note that in Team Update #1, it states that the minibot doesn't have to be built by your team, or even another FRC team at the tournament. It can come from any FTC team and That team doesn't have to be near you geographically. You can contact a team of your choice, partner with them, agree to a deployment 'interface' and meet them at the regional. Or they can just ship you the minibot so you can practice with it and they don't even have to show up at the regional!

This is what engineering is about. Rarely do you have a big engineering design where all the parts and interfaces between parts are done in one location.

FIRST is accomplishing several things here... Exposing FTC teams to FRC more directly, and encouraging normally separate teams to collaborate-- they don't have to be from the same organization, same city or even the same country!

You can get twenty FTC teams to provide you with Minibots, if you are able and they are willing.

John
Team 2530