"Spare Parts" Rules Are Broken

[Gary Dillard]

Seems like I'm always playing devil's advocate on these threads.

Why is it a problem to bring a practice robot to drive on practice day?

What is the advantage this team gained? One day of driving a practice robot on a real field? If they had modifications to make to the competition robot that took all day thursday and made the decision to do that, that's all they would have sacrificed if they didn't have an extra robot.

I'm not aware of any requirements for the robot you field on practice day, other than they check to make sure it can't damage the field. You don't have to complete inspection prior to practice - how many teams put a robot on the practice field that was overweight, outside the size limit, didn't have 4 team numbers, etc.? Are they equally as guilty?

They had an extra TWO WEEKS since the robot shipped for driving practice and tweaking at home - is that fair to the teams who didn't have the resources to build 2 robots?

What about the teams who go to 2, 3, or 4 regionals - they get all those extra practice days, is that fair to the teams who only go to 1? (we've beat that question to death in other threads but it's a similar point).

At the Central Florida Regional they didn't have a practice field setup - just carpet - so we couldn't test modifications to our lift mechanism until we were on the field. If teams bring practice fields to other regionals to try things out, is that fair to us?

The intent of the rules is to try to level the playing field, but there is no way it will ever be fair. We all know that, Dean admits that, and we accept that. Somebody early in this thread said they should have known it wasn't right - I disagree. As they stated, they followed all the rules in regards to spare parts. Don't make up other rules just because someone else is taking advantage of their strengths, in this case the resources to build a second robot.

Team SPAM is probably a middle tier team as far as available financial, engineering and manufacturing resources - sufficient to be competitive but nowhere near enough to build 2 'bots. I don't begrudge anyone who can - I envy you and applaud you, because the bottom line is, it's not about the robots. It's about inspiring the students, and when my students say "WOW" about what your team has done, it's a good thing.