Is there a dominant design style?

[mrnoble]

Originally Posted by Pat Fairbank

Yep. I call this phenomenon "Cargo Cult Robotics".

Okay, so what am I missing? A lot of folks here are saying basically the same thing: don't be slavish. Fine. Bu,t we built our first WCD as an off season project a year ago and loved it; we are on our fourth WCD build right now. Is it wrong that we took inspiration from teams we admire (including 254)? Is it bad that we are planning on using this construction style for all future projects, barring some radical reinventing of the FRC game?

A far as vexpro gussets are concerned, that one is a no brainier. I actually contacted a company in Russia four years ago in hopes of buying exactly the product that Vex now produces. We have no welding capability, so riveting works for us.