Ethics of 2 teams building 2 identical robots

[DonRotolo]

Originally Posted by sst.thad

So some of the members think that bringing 2 identical robots to a regional would be cheating because they think it gives us an unfair advantage to winning.

Um, what if both robots perform very poorly? Will teams like you for having an advantage to losing?

Ethics is not a question here. Neither is "Fair" (or unfair). Nobody will hate you for collaborating. There is no advantage to building two identical robots*

So, considering those truths, don't worry and just build 2 twins. It'll work out fine.


(*Actually, this is true if they are built at the same time. If one is built after the first is completed, the second one will be better made. The design could still be awful, but build quality improves in the second iteration).