Why Six Weeks?

[Gabriel]

A mentor on my team asked this question today and I couldn't answer them. Why do we only have six weeks to build the robot? The first regional isn't until 3/4, but we have to ship on 2/24. Wouldn't it make more sense to give us more time in the future? I know that part of the challenge is the time limit, but wouldn't we be able to accomplish a lot more with more time? Especially rookies who have to learn everything as we go. I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious what FIRST's rationale is because I've never seen it explained.

[Daniel Brim]

Keep in mind that it takes a lot of time to ship a 600 lb crate, in some cases, over 5000 miles. There is only a week to ship the robots.

[Cory]

If they gave us 7,8,9 weeks, you lose a whole lot of the challenge. Sure things would be better, but not necessarily good for everyone. Basically what would happen is veteran teams and teams with tons of resources would get their robots perfect, while rookies wouldn't ever approach the samer level for the most part. Also, 6 weeks is a long time to be spending all your free time doing nothing but robotics. Im not sure many teachers and/or students would be sane after 9 weeks of building Also, FIRST gets last priority during shipping with FedEx, since it is free, so they have to leave lots of time for shipping the bots.

Cory

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by Cory

Also, 6 weeks is a long time to be spending all your free time doing nothing but robotics. Im not sure many teachers and/or students would be sane after 9 weeks of building

That's the reason that Woody (or is it Dean) gives. They also worry about the level of commitment of the corporate sponsors.

[Gabriel]

Yes, but presumably they could solve those problems by scheduling the competitions later or start the season earlier or something. Maybe they could give rookie teams an extra week or two and convince FedEx to ship just rookie boxes at a higher priority - there are plenty of ways to do it. I'm just curious where the six week figure came from and why it was chosen.

[Matt Adams]

I'm just a nobody, so this of course isn't an official response.. but I have a couple of hunches.

I know that for a lot of teams... a burn-out occurs after 4 or 5 weeks. Imagine having to go for 8! While one could make the arguement that if we had an extra 2 weeks, we could meet less often... but I don't know how many teams would really do that.

I think what's important to remember is that 6 weeks is part of the challenge. It's honestly not enough time to make a truly great robot. If FIRST wanted to see really great robots, they'd release the game in early September and we'd compete in mid-March. However, I think that the blitz build is what makes FIRST so interesting. It's NOT enough time to do a quality job on every single part. You have 6 weeks to create a robot that will have 90 minutes of actually playing time.

Powerhouse teams with infinite resources are still under the same crunch time, which is perhaps the one factor that somewhat levels the field. More time would ultimately seperate the haves from the have-nots more than it would even it, in my opinion.

Now what about giving rookies more time, say.. 8 weeks? I think that will just end up having a lot of 2nd year teams truly hurting. It's sort of like playing a veteran chess player minus their queen... it's fun the first time and builds false self-confidence.

Just a few thoughts. Good luck this year!

Matt

[Ken Leung]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

Yes, but presumably they could solve those problems by scheduling the competitions later or start the season earlier or something. Maybe they could give rookie teams an extra week or two and convince FedEx to ship just rookie boxes at a higher priority - there are plenty of ways to do it. I'm just curious where the six week figure came from and why it was chosen.

I think you hit the right answer without knowing it.

The truth is, it is very hard to push the competitions later, or start the season earlier.

Consider this: There is Christmas and new year before January, so you can't really start the season earlier. Anytime during the fall is when the teams first meet to get organized and adapt to the new schedule. Then there is AP testing coming very soon after Championship event, so it is impossible to push the competition date to any later.

Think about it from another angle. We started the build period on 1/10, and we now have ship date on 2/26. That is actually closer to 7 week build period than 6. That should be plenty of time to build a robot, get it tested and get driver practice.

[Francis-134]

I think it is beacuse of the following:

The build season started in the first Saturday in January, which is right when people get back from Holiday vacation...

The season often ends near the final week in February, which is Winter Vacation for most people....

People often go away for vacation...

Therefore 6 weeks is essentially just out of nessesity so it dosent interfere with vacations, finals, AP exams and other things.

[ChrisH]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

A mentor on my team asked this question today and I couldn't answer them. Why do we only have six weeks to build the robot?

To quote Woodie at the 2001 Kickoff: "Because we wanted to have mercy"

He went on to explain that no matter how much time they gave us, we would always want or need more. So they limit it to what they feel is the bare minimum to meet the challenge at all.

[Phil_Lutz]

I don't think I can take more than 6 weeks working 16hour days.
8 for work and 8 for robot, 8 for sleep, and that's not counting drive time....

[Rich Wong]

Originally Posted by Gabriel

A mentor on my team asked this question today and I couldn't answer them. Why do we only have six weeks to build the robot? The first regional isn't until 3/4, but we have to ship on 2/24. Wouldn't it make more sense to give us more time in the future? I know that part of the challenge is the time limit, but wouldn't we be able to accomplish a lot more with more time? Especially rookies who have to learn everything as we go. I'm not criticizing, I'm just curious what FIRST's rationale is because I've never seen it explained.

Besides the alignment of the moon, sun, and Mars…
I believe the formula is quite complicated. Like Ken mentioned, it has to do with the holidays, the college breaks, the football season, the baseball season, availability and cost of stadium facilities, college finals, spring break, volunteers, vacation period, seasonal travel cost etc. You name it!

When it comes to engineering, most experienced engineers will tell you, “more time means more opportunity for more complexity and more problems.” One of the goals of the FIRST competition is to put the students in a real life engineering situation- a project is given with a fixed due date. Customer requires a finished product and delivered on time or else this affects your company’s (the team) bottomline (ability to compete).

Rookies obviously have the hardest time with the short building period, that’s why there are awards specifically for rookies only. So don't depend on a robot to represent your team only, show the judges your efforts doing the whole building process and what you have learned from the experience.
(The journey is the reward- the FIRST regionals are just a celebration of your achievements)
All this has been documented in the past by FIRST. It’s just a matter of finding it.

[Redhead Jokes]

Originally Posted by ChrisH

To quote Woodie at the 2001 Kickoff: "Because we wanted to have mercy"

Thank God! That is so true!

[Arefin Bari]

hey buddy... you got 6 weeks 2 days now...

[Elgin Clock]

Because "6 weeks of hell" rolls off the tounge a little nicer than 7, or 8 or 9 or even 5

That's why!!!


Sometimes the simplest answers are the most stupid!! lol

[generalbrando]

This is a slight reitteration, but I'd ask the person who asked you this:

If we had 8 weeks, would you be asking that question with 8 instead of 6?

I don't think any amount of time would ever make me feel like I could create a multifunctioning robot that performs so many tasks in such a complicated way within such dimesions and weight. If you sum up what you do in 6 weeks to someone, no matter how much of a geek they are - they will be impressed.

Best of luck to all....especially rookies!