Another idea for future competitions

[archiver]

Posted by Patrick Dingle at 04/12/2001 12:19 PM EST


College Student on team #639, Red B^2, from Ithaca High School and Cornell University.


In Reply to: Another idea for future competitions
Posted by Kris Verdeyen on 04/12/2001 11:42 AM EST:



I would love to see room for more programming and electrical control of the robot. The Innovation FIRST systems are great -- but can they do better? Replace the BASIC stamp chip with a chip that lets us download precompiled code, perhaps? One of the most interesting things to me is when robots do have automated things, such as autobalance.

Probably too complicated and expensive, but I can imagine...

Patrick

: One thing that I've noticed about FIRST is its emphasis on mechanical engineering and design to the extent of virtually eliminating any creative electrical and software designs. IMHO, FIRST needs to rectify this. Perhaps by allowing more purchase of electrical parts (by opening up the Digi-Key catalog similarly to the SPI arrangement), or by letting the robots compete autonomously for 15 seconds or so before the controllers turn on.

: Now, before I get hate mail describing the autobalancing functions and wearable controls that we saw at nats, let me just say that I recognize the engineering and programming ability that went into them, but such innovations are still being unduly limited.