[FIRST EMAIL] Stop Build Day Survey

[D.Allred]

This is a really good thread. I’ve seen more perspectives presented that really make me try and understand the impact to teams.

Originally Posted by gblake

"I advocate tightening the current stop-build restrictions because I don't want to see the total FRC program slide too far down the slippery slope of over-emphasizing the competition part of an otherwise well-rounded FRC program." See the next paragraph for an explanation of why I wrote this.

In this thread about a survey about Stop Build Day, I think it would be useful and interesting if each post (even those that are part of a multi-post exchange) began with a short sentence or phrase stating why the poster opposes/supports eliminating, weakening, loosening, tightening, keeping, strengthening (or is undecided about) the current stop build rules.

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Blake

Good idea.

"I advocate for eliminating bag day or at least have robot access periods because I believe it will benefit my team. My decision made no attempt to ascertain if this will be a benefit for all teams or the overall health of FIRST/FRC."

Our team has a goal to win every competition. I’m not claiming we are at that level – it’s a goal. To help meet this goal, we have been building practice robots for the past 3 seasons. Practice and making minor improvements to increase scoring effectiveness or taking time to improve autonomous modes have been the best investments.

With access periods, we would probably invest more time in improving the competition robot instead of sinking a lot of resources in a practice robot. This logic breaks down under the current rules if we qualify for Championships and have to ship the robot immediately after our last competition.

Our strategy would not change that much with open build. We may try more aggressive adjustments like adding on another feature assuming we wouldn’t negatively impact existing performance levels.

I only have personal observation and not much data to comment on this change across FRC. But there seem to be some claims that don’t make sense. Here’s the biggest one to me.

More build time will improve competition level.
No. More time to repeat the same process you have been using will not improve your result.

We’ve set a goal to finish the first robot in 4 to 5 weeks using a build schedule of about 18 to 20 hours per week. The idea is play with “version 1.1 or 1.2” robot by our week 1 regional. This season we are switching to VersaFrame construction instead of milling our own tube and gussets. We should be able to build the robot a bit faster if we are only manufacturing a few specialty parts. Getting to version 1.3 or even 2.1 may be possible.

As Jim Zondag pointed out in his analysis, about half of FRC only plays one event. Teams that play more events tend to improve. I don’t think eliminating bag day will have a dramatic impact on your first event performance. One-and-done teams will probably perform about the same as today. In other words, a district format which gives you more opportunity to play seems to be a proven improvement model. Open build makes will make it easier to make implement improvements between your first and second events plus get time to test it. Maybe no bagging requirement will have the same impact for team as districts have.

My argument may seem odd since I’m stating a change would help my team, but not most teams. My fear is most people will spend time trying to do more than do better.

David