Patents received by FIRST Teams

[Jim Zondag]

To reply to Beth,
Yes, I have used technology from FIRST robots in over 2.3 Million Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep Vehicles.
No, I did not patent this.
The original item I used was a programmable low pass software data filter. Nothing really revolutionary, but very handy. I wrote this routine in 2004 when working on our 4 speed transmission shift scheduler. A few weeks later, I had a need for something nearly identical in a controller I was developing for the 2005 Chrysler 300. I used my FIRST developed routine for this application and since then it has become part of one of our standard libraries of software components. In 2008 Model Year it will be in every single Dodge/Chrysler/Jeep we make. Since then, I have done this again with several other small, handy items such as a compact table driven linear interpolater, and an programmable digital debounce object.
On the flipside, I frequently use software routines and methods from my Automotive projects in our FIRST robots.