Changing the face of the game..

[archiver]

Posted by Andy Baker.

Engineer on team #45, TechnoKats, from Kokomo High School and Delphi Automotive Systems.

Posted on 11/7/99 9:08 PM MST


In Reply to: Re: Imaging a modular tank... posted by Michael Martus on 11/7/99 7:34 PM MST:



During the FIRST Forum this past summer, the issue of shipping wasn't discussed, due to other issues dominating the conversations.

I wish now that we would've talked about this more, that's for sure, because I think that the wrong decision was made. My personal opinion is that the shipping rules should be loosened. We should be able to pack up our robots, take them to a competition, and then play with them until the next competition.

With the new rules, we're going to be spending many hours in March building spare parts. I'd rather be refining and debugging our competition robot further.

I feel that this new rule limits not only the aggressiveness of driving during the regional competitions, but also the risk-taking during the design phase of the competition. In order to be more reliable, teams won't take some of the design risks that were taken during the previous years. Hopefully this won't happen, I hope that we will see new, inventive drive bases, more transmissions, and more creative lift mechanisms.

I'm just thinking that we're all going to be more conservative... not only with how the game is played, but also in design.

What do the rest of you think? Is your team willing to take design risks with this rule intact?

Andy B.