Is a shifting transmission really necessary?

[Gdeaver]

I believe that 2005 changed this debate significantly. This year for the first time the kop included a very usable frame and drive train. There is no reason even a rookie team with no resources can't have a robot base driving by at least week 3 or sooner. The implications for the power teams that build more complex drive trains is that if their development and build time drags out into week 5 or 6 they are going to be going up against teams that have been training their drivers and debugging for quit a while. Also by having the kop frame and drive train together early the programming team has something to do instead of waiting to week six and then having to perform miracles. Our drivers and programmer spent week 4 finding the right joy stick control algorithm and tried different wheel traction combo's. The rest of the build team spent their energy on the arm with out drive train distractions. We went to the regional this year with experienced drivers and a debugged solid robot. We were a very resource limited team and we performed very well making it to the finals. I believe our success was directly attributed to the kop drive train. Going forward, I think every team should look real hard at what the investment of time and resource in a custom trans and drive train will do to their project schedule. Does the gain and game justify the expenditure of the resources and time. The 2005 kop changed things.