Raising the $3500 limit?

[Max Lobovsky]

Originally Posted by Team311

i mean you could then use titanium or aircraft aluminum or diamond. it would add in a whole new aspect of "our robot is made of titanium whats yours?" and would defeat the whole purpose of graciuos profesionalism

I think what may probably yield a greater weight savings for most teams would be some really rapid finite element analysis of structures on the robot. Its amazing how many robots have such severely over-constructed parts. If we only had a couple of on demand engineers to run the software and a nice farm to do calculations quick, i bet we could eliminate all these overly heavy parts.

[Steve W]

We were close to weight so I weighed our batteries. I got weights from 13.2 - 13.9. I couldn't believe it. Maybe we could have a 125 lb robot without battery.

[Jay H 237]

I think the $3500 limit is pretty comfortable. As said in an earlier post getting rid of the electronics cap is a good idea. If a team wants to spend a good chunk of the $3500 on a custom circuit or electronics let them. Raising the $3500 limit doesn't sound like a good idea. FIRST already relaxed the rules this year, also eliminated the ban on exotic materials, AND if they decide to also raise the amount the more unfair the game will be between teams, especially rookies and teams with no or limited sponsorship.

My two cents