Ethics of 2 teams building 2 identical robots

[EricH]

Originally Posted by sst.thad

So because our teams are based out of the same shop, the 2 teams would be combined into 1 during build season. Once competition started, the team would split into 2 in order to have the 2 separate drive teams and pit crews. Would this be collaboration or something else.

It would be counted as collaboration.

This is effectively how the various collaborations of the past have functioned. X teams meld into one, then produce X+Y robots, one per team and a practice one.

It should also be noted that you want to be careful how the team is split. While I'm not sure anybody would really ask (and most don't), it could be seen as one team building two robots and competing with two robots under two numbers, simply because the teams are so close (this would be the closest collaboration distance-wise that I'm aware of, and the only one where multiple teams shared a shop). There is a long-running rule about this (2011's <R10>). While this is not your intent, this is where most of the questions will probably come from/are coming from on the team, if they're asked. (And the general format, if asked, would be something to the effect of: How is this not one team?)

To that end, I would suggest three possible routes to take:
1) Single team. There is no one-school-per-team requirement. Build one robot and an identical practice robot.
2) Double team, collaboration, non-identical robots. See my above post for a short explanation.
3) Double team, collaboration, identical robots. Make sure that the teams are distinct apart from the design and building (this will help with the above-mentioned rule question).

If I was to recommend one of those three, I'd probably go with #2 if you have the combined resources to pull it off. It'll still allow many of the same benefits as a full collaboration (e.g., lots of spare parts for shared systems when you're at the same competition), but will force the teams to troubleshoot problems semi-independently, which will reduce a lot of the questions. If you don't have the resources, #1 and use a non-identical practice robot, say a modified older robot.

I'm not saying that this type of collaboration is against the rules; I'm pretty certain that it is not. I'm pointing out one place that you'll need to make sure you have an answer for any critics (and the past collaborating teams have had such an answer).