Do you think a practice robot is needed to compete?

[techhelpbb]

Originally Posted by Wayne TenBrink

The early results of this survey demonstrate the gap between the "Chief Delphi" crowd and everybody else. What percentage of total teams build a practice bot? Its nowhere close to 80%.

The only way we can insure valid metric is with FIRST doing it.

I used to go around as CSA and, in addition to my duties, ask about which programming language and speed controls (also CAN or PWM) teams use. In that capacity I could get real data on what people are really doing and, as the CSA, I could see what's working and not working. This also made it possible to be ahead of an issue - if everyone with a particular part is seeing a problem I know where to go immediately if it becomes apparent.

So this is, at best, a barometer of the sentiment of the people who bother to contribute and should not be used in place of a proper study. However the fact it's not all inclusive doesn't remove the fact that there is a clear majority from those that do contribute at this time.

Also at this time only 8.63% see no value in a practice bot at all.
So 91.37% can find a good reason to do it or would consider it if they had the resources.