Different Types of robots

[Nemo]

Originally Posted by Joseph Smith

What can a team learn by building the minimum competitive concept, with mechanisms that they already know will work? I know there are many teams that might do better if they went for a design like this, but by trying something more complex, they're exercising design and problem solving skills that could make them more successful in the future. I believe that it's more important to work hard and get ambitious, even if it doesn't all work perfectly, then go with the basic idea that you know will work but doesn't let you get creative.

I partly agree with this sentiment. I would argue, though, that up front complexity isn't required in order to be creative, work hard, and be ambitious. A team can do plenty of good work on a roller collector to make it incrementally better. It's pretty challenging to make them collect a ball that comes in from the side, for example. Teams get to decide where they want to put their focus, and I think it is great if a team chooses to pick one mechanism (even a seemingly simple one) and then really drill into the details of it and refine it to the best degree they can.