[FTC]: Unlimited raw materials. Welding. Wow!

[JesseK]

This announcement is going to blur the lines alot more in the whole 'transfer of skills from mentor to student' paradigm. Yet it will allow a bit more creativity in robot design (so long as the game doesn't have ridiculous outcomes like the 2011-2012 game did...). Personally, given the choice I'll stick with FRC. Yet if I ever had to start a new team from scratch as a sole mentor, this announcement makes FTC much more attractive since FTC is more cost effective that FRC yet is still open-ended competition platform without the constraints of a kit.

It will be cool to see pure WCD's in FTC rather than the standard cobbled-together amalgamations that I've seen in the past. And given that (currently) there's no weight limit, I don't see why the lower frame rails can't simply be solid steel extrusions welded together in order to get a massive traction bonus. A 50-lb 8-motor box-on-wheels with a c.g. 1" off the ground, proper gearing and the LEGO tires that I (still!) only saw 2 teams with at champs this year?? I'd take that as a partner in FTC any day.

Originally Posted by PhilBot

The big (HUGE) difference between FTC and FRC (I coach both) is that:
...
Where as in FTC (and FLL) the students are meant to do all the work. That's why they have much more time to do it, and everything is scaled down. So unless the teams break the spirit of this difference, FTC won't turn into FRC.

Funny you say that -- it does happen, and it does affect outcomes:
Under The Sun's 2010 FTC bot was completely adult programmed. The dad on the team admitted it outright to a couple of students who cornered him at the end of the VA competition. At champs, one of my snarkier students walked up to the guy and congratulated him on beating high school students. I think at that point he realized his mistake, because since then the kids on that team have become much more knowledgeable about the underlying code.