I was wondering...

[Radical Pi]

Originally Posted by MattC9

Also if I get a test code for a 6WD robot that is publicly available and use it on a competition robot, then reuse it for next year's robot, would I have to make it publicly available?

See the Blue Box under R22. Specifically this section:

Example: A different team develops a similar solution during the fall, and plans to use the developed software on their competition ROBOT. After completing the software, they post it in a generally accessible public forum and make the code available to all teams. Because they have made their software generally available (per the Blue Box in the definition of COTS, it is considered COTS software and they can use it on their ROBOT.

In summary, the software when downloaded was considered COTS. If said software is edited, it is no longer COTS until the revised software has been posted publicly, at which point it is again COTS and can be used next year.

One question though. It seems like the blue box under R22 conflicts with the one under the definition of COTS. See the bolded sections:

Originally Posted by R22 Blue Box

Example: A different team develops a similar solution during the fall, and plans to use the developed software on their competition ROBOT. After completing the software, they post it in a generally accessible public forum and make the code available to all teams. Because they have made their software generally available (per the Blue Box in the definition of COTS, it is considered COTS software and they can use it on their ROBOT.

The COTS box, however, has this:

Originally Posted by COTS Blue Box

For the purposes of the FRC, generally available software modules obtained from open sources (e.g. professional publications, commonly used FRC community accessible web resources, industry source code repositories, etc.) that are not specifically affiliated with individual FRC teams shall be considered COTS items.

Tell me if I'm mis-interpreting something, but isn't the posted code affiliated with an FRC team, and therefore not COTS, which is in conflict with the scenario listed in R22. Which one's right?