Teams I would like to recognize for excellent designs this year.

[J Flex 188]

I'm sorry if this is viewed as a personal affront to you, or to your team, which it is in any way shape or form not meant to be. I respect yourself and 696 for having put countless hours of work into that machine, which we had the privilege of competing against in Southern California.

However, that being said. The entire year, I have been witness to you relentlessly plugging your six motor drive train. This is again, not an attack on your creation, but perhaps there is a reason why no one has mentioned it? Teams have had it before, or like you said, it was not the most useful for this years game. Just because no one mentions it doesn't take anything away from it. Take 188 for example. We had a gripper very similar to 469S, albeit with the capability to hold 2 instead of 3. This was made even more unique by the fact that in concept and design and fabrication it was mostly done by a sophomore, along the way, he had to convince the leadership of the team and the mentors about the worthiness of his idea. In competition it proved to be reliable at times and disastrous at other times. It worked perfectly when we used it in practice matches and for no plausible reason, dropped tetras in competition. It was a good effector and I believe one of the more unique ones in FIRST this year. That being said, 71 and 469 (to only mention 2) both had the same style of gripper and both robots have been mentioned. Did myself or the person that designed it (Philip W.) jump onto this forum and mention ours being incredibly similar in concept and design? No. Thats the bottom line. Plugging your own design when people are recognizing others, especially when you are such a seasoned member of the forums just doesn't cut it anymore.

330 - Awesome driver, great bunch of people to work with
22 - Even more awesome driver (he hosted myself and our operator), Elegantly designed robot, student coded, a class act all around
191 - nice usage of PVC, rivaling that of 71
1114 - smooth machine is all i can say
1305 - mentioned before




And yes, for the record, 188 had a six motor 2 speed drive train circa last season, designed by Tristan Lall.

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Anyway, nobody mentioned 696's very own 6 motor two speed HexaMax drive system. While it did turn out to be overkill for how the game played out, I believe it was the only of it's kind this year and one of very few ever made.