Quote:
Originally Posted by ebarker
It's an easy call.
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Yes, according to the rulebook it is.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebarker
This rule is designed to maximize the safety and operating efficiency of the whole event that is happening in Atlanta. It is impractical to optimize things to suit a single team, when so many other criteria has to be met.
In other words, they are doing their best to maximize everyones safety and enjoyment. If a particular team is unhappy with that then that is just tough. It's a good rule that takes into account a lot of things.
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What other criteria do you refer to? I think of it this way:
--FIRST trusts us to transport our robot to and from the field, onto the cart and off of the cart, into the crate and out of the crate. We know what is safe and what isn't; we know enough to tie the robot down well in whatever mode of transportation we use. There is quite clearly no safety issue at hand here.
--We are not asking event personnel to load the robot into our vehicles; we will do it ourselves. This will require no more effort from Shepherd (sp?); in fact it will require less due to reduced weight of the crates.
--There isn't a traffic issue--teams already clog walkways with toolboxes, carts, totes full of spare parts, etc. during the end of the event. Our team has about 15-20 separate pieces that must be hauled out to the truck; we used the same path we would've to bring our robot out to bring all of this cargo out. One more piece of cargo from each team is not going to hurt traffic one bit.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ebarker
They are shipping it to you for free, courtesty of Fed-Ex. If you had to pay it would probably cost you a $1,000. Thats $344,000 for the whole FRC field. And you don't even have to move it out of your pit.
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--That's $344,000 that Fed-Ex is out. They graciously donated all those waybills, and because of this, we should keep our crates as light as we can, not load them as heavy as possible. Our crate would've been much lighter with just tools in it--making it easier and safer to transport.
--It's not like we weren't using this service--the crate would've contained almost all of our machines (band saw, drill press, belt sander, etc.). We didn't turn our noses up on it; we simply would've used it in a different way. The robot is actually easier to transport for us, and a lighter crate is obviously easier to transport for Fed-Ex, so it would've been beneficial to both parties if we had been allowed to drive the 'bot home.
I do not find a single valid point to base this rule on, therefore I must write it off as a wording anomaly that needs to be corrected for next year. Once I get permission from a mentor, I will probably e-mail FIRST about this.
I am still willing to discuss here if you wish, but that's where I stand right now.
Fairly frustrated,
JBot
When it comes to FIRST (you've all heard the cliche) -- we're all winners.
When it comes to the competition: to the engineering design challenge, we're NOT all winners -- some solutions are better than others. - JVN [more] 
(since 2004)
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