Dangerous precedent set by Q&A 461: Loaning Parts/Assemblies to other teams

[iVanDuzer]

Originally Posted by MrForbes

Yes....if you serve it to every alliance, not just your own.

What if you had an idea for a new flavour of cheesecake while you were at the event?

• Some robots are Lactose Intolerant (unable to accept your cheesecake)
• Some robots are on a diet (don't want to accept your cheesecake)
• FRC teams are not Cheesecake Factories (it's unrealistic to expect teams to bring 8 easily upgradeable mechanisms to supe-up other robots with when they have their own robot to look after)

STORY TIME: In 2014, one of our team's mentors came up with an idea for an "easy assist" ramp. Basically, just a passive ramp that, if a ball was dropped on the top of the robot and the robot drove forward, would count as an assist.

Knowing that we were going to seed in the 2nd or 3rd spot, and after looking over our scouting data, we knew that our third robot was going to have difficulty assisting. So we started combing the pits for robots we could add our ramp to.

We found a team with a GIANT arm on top of their robot that could be easily removed with a couple disconnected wires and some bolts. We talked to that team before elims and pitched them our ramp idea. Everyone was excited about the idea, and we picked them. An hour later, they were on the field and their beautifully machined arm was in the pits. Three hours later we all had silver medals. An hour after that, the arm was back on.

Some takeaways:

• We knew that some teams had mechanisms that would make the addition of our ramp impossible (lactose intolerant robots)
• We asked several teams if they were willing to modify their robots, and only one said yes (teams on a diet)
• We built the ramp completely during the lunch break after alliance selections and we were unable to build 7 more ramps (we're not a cheesecake factory)

In the end, our team was happy we got an effective second pic. The cheesecaked team was happy they got a chance to play Saturday afternoon. Our pit got the experience of quickly building a mechanism from scratch. Their team got practice dismantling / reassembling their robot. Everyone was happy! #teamcheesecake