Innovations

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Andrew Schreiber

Bragging rights? Giving credit where credit is due? Yes the teams that popularized it deserve credit but the originators should also be acknowledged.

Meh, I'd let the original teams speak for themselves then if it matters much. As far as I know, 1885 was the first team to use the camera as a visual radar for the drivers using custom-wrapped code from the cRIO in 2009 and a Java display for the driver. We were also the 'first' (I think 357 did it too) to use 4 independently actuated pneumatic linkage modules on the drive train in 2009. But neither fact matters; they were niche ideas meant for that game. Actually, given our last-place OPR at championships in 2009 I dunno that they're facts I'd advertise that we were firsts of, heh.

As for another innovation there's the multi-threaded approach to robot programming (inputs, state processing, and outputs all on separate threads). I don't think we were the first in 2006 since iirc we learned it from 116. Yet in 2008 I talked to several sensor-heavy teams at championships who also did it that way. When did that start? Was it just a natural part of the IFI controller?

[Andrew Schreiber]

Originally Posted by JesseK

Meh, I'd let the original teams speak for themselves then if it matters much. As far as I know, 1885 was the first team to use the camera as a visual radar for the drivers using custom-wrapped code from the cRIO in 2009 and a Java display for the driver. We were also the 'first' (I think 357 did it too) to use 4 independently actuated pneumatic linkage modules on the drive train in 2009. But neither fact matters; they were niche ideas meant for that game. Actually, given our last-place OPR at championships in 2009 I dunno that they're facts I'd advertise that we were firsts of, heh.

Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm mostly commenting on a process rather than your particular statements.

By your own admissions these were not successful innovations and there is really no reason to celebrate unsuccessful innovations. There is still much value in them in that you can always learn from failures (why did the linkage modules fail? What was beneficial of the camera feedback? etc.). These questions might help move forward and turn them into something worth celebrating.