DEAN-BOT 2005

[roboteer49]

Hey everybody!

I have a simple mission to get Dean, Dave, and Woody to build a robot for next years competition. I brought this up in the 2005 radical game design but i want it to actually happen. Don't u want to see a segway hanging from the bar? I think they could compete against the national champs in a exhibition match. They would have one robot that could take up 2 robots, a super robot. I'm calling upon u, the chiefdelphi memebers, to help make my dream possible. Since I don't know them I want everyone when they see him to tell them to build a robot next year. Because I want to see it and I know u do too. What do u guys think?

DEAN-BOT IN 2005!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Arefin Bari]

dean, dave, woody... makes a robot to compete...

OH YES I AGREE!!!

[miketwalker]

I do like the idea. I wonder if they have the time to do it though (they do go crazy up at the FIRST headquarters preparing for competition). Dave works with a team already too... so technically he already builds a bot

[henryBsick]

Talk to Erin Rapacki. She works at DEKA, and from what I hear should see Dean ATLEAST every wednesday night.

[Erin Rapacki]

I don't see Dean Wednesday nights... I only see his house. However, I do have a tendency to run into him (almost literally) in the hallways. I'll bring it up next time.

ByE

erin

[Greg Perkins]

The problem i see about this is your asking real engineers to design one, build one, then compete one. HAH! ok, but itll be done in like 3 years LOL it would be awesome, however it would be wicked funny to watch like 3 of the best engineers in the comp. brainstorm and build it.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Greg Perkins

The problem i see about this is your asking real engineers to design one, build one, then compete one. HAH! ok, but itll be done in like 3 years LOL it would be awesome, however it would be wicked funny to watch like 3 of the best engineers in the comp. brainstorm and build it.

I realize that this was probably meant as a joke, but REAL engineers keep in mind ALL constraints when working on a project. That includes deadlines.

Of course we push the envelope on constraints too. If the customer lets us get away with it, then a six week project might get crammed into just three years. But at that point you have to wonder, who is really at fault? The engineers for taking so long, or the customer for not cutting the project off a long time before?

Here's another thought. FIRST robots are not six week projects. They are never ending projects where the requirements are changed on an annual basis.

[JVN]

Originally Posted by miketwalker

I wonder if they have the time to do it though...

BINGO.

I doubt we'll ever see this. These are all VERY busy people who do many things beyond FIRST. If it took 40 hours (which we all know is a gross underestimate) that is 40 hours they could have spent on something else. Is it worth it just to see a "placebo robot"?

Probably not.

If you want to see Dave's robot(s), look on Mars.
Dean's robot climbs stairs and provides mobility for the disabled....

Get the picture?

[Beth Sweet]

I would be interested to see if a "superpower robot" (made by the FIRST greats) could be beaten by a robot that one of the teams made. Who's up for the challenge?

[Lisa Perez]

It could be like the Placebo robot in OCCRA which would be used if both teams on one alliance were rendered unworking for a match!

[Madison]

Originally Posted by cutiebethy

I would be interested to see if a "superpower robot" (made by the FIRST greats) could be beaten by a robot that one of the teams made. Who's up for the challenge?

I'm certain that it could be beaten by a robot a team made.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by roboteer49

Hey everybody!

I have a simple mission to get Dean, Dave, and Woody to build a robot for next years competition. I brought this up in the 2005 radical game design but i want it to actually happen. Don't u want to see a segway hanging from the bar? I think they could compete against the national champs in a exhibition match. They would have one robot that could take up 2 robots, a super robot. I'm calling upon u, the chiefdelphi memebers, to help make my dream possible. Since I don't know them I want everyone when they see him to tell them to build a robot next year. Because I want to see it and I know u do too. What do u guys think?

DEAN-BOT IN 2005!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dave already does build a robot, along with the rest of Team 116. I have heard him state on repeated occasions that, while he could step away from his team and concentrate on just the "larger issues" of FIRST he won't. Because he feels that the only way to really understand what is going on "in the trenches" is to be an active part of a team. These days he may also find it useful in staying in touch with one or more of his children. A benefit without price.

I think it would be a good exercise for Dean and Woody to build a real FIRST robot. I'd also include a few others from headquarters on the list. You have to actually try and accomplish something within "a system" to truly understand the limitations of that system and the frustrations of others who are working with it.

But I think it would be an even better exercise for them to take a year off from their FIRST duties and just be part of a team. Because, as they have repeatedly stated, FIRST is NOT about the robots. As an engineer, I feel pretty confident that we can resolve most issues with the robot, one way or another. It is the Team issues I have the most struggles with.

So some sort of rotation program where Dean or Woodie or Eric and other key members of the FIRST headquarters staff take a year off and just be part of a team for a year would help them understand Team issues better. It would have to be a rotation because we couldn't have all of them taking off at once. In the case of certain people, it would have to be announced at the end of the current season that so and so would be on a team next year and so would not be participating in the game design process this time around.

Of course this would lead almost inevitiably to jealousy from teams they were not part of. There would be all kinds of remarks about "advantages" real or imagined. Especially, if a formerly mediocre team they became part of suddenly became Champions or even won a Regional. Also, Dean and Woodie are people and at times even the best of us can be very hard to live with. So there would probably be times of conflict and a certain amount of viewing the "real" person. Often this is not a pretty sight.

So it might be better to just leave well enough alone.

[KarenH]

Wait!! This is all backwards! The top FIRST people must know, weeks if not months in advance, what the game will be, so they would have an unfair advantage in designing the robot. That is to say, they couldn't help designing it before Kickoff.

The way to do it would be to have some teams design the game, then reveal it to the FIRST people, who can then build and compete against each other in the summer, with members of first-year teams (no longer rookies by this time) being the referees. We'd have to have some really picky robot inspectors, too. It would be a sort of un-FIRST or anti-FIRST. In fact, we could call it LAST, which would stand for ______________ (fill in the blank).

[Erin Rapacki]

Looming Apathy for Science & Technology

[Andy Grady]

Originally Posted by KarenH

Wait!! This is all backwards! The top FIRST people must know, weeks if not months in advance, what the game will be, so they would have an unfair advantage in designing the robot. That is to say, they couldn't help designing it before Kickoff.

The way to do it would be to have some teams design the game, then reveal it to the FIRST people, who can then build and compete against each other in the summer, with members of first-year teams (no longer rookies by this time) being the referees. We'd have to have some really picky robot inspectors, too. It would be a sort of un-FIRST or anti-FIRST. In fact, we could call it LAST, which would stand for ______________ (fill in the blank).

The acronym is already taken...L.A.S.T. stands for Lunatics Against Science and Technology. Its my amish movement.