Did Lunacy really level the playing field?

[Cory]

Throughout the season I have seen numerous comments that the change to FRP and standardized wheels has leveled the playing field between the veteran teams who have advanced drivetrain designs and new/low resource teams who do not.

I submit that this is not true.

For starters:

The gap is not all that big in the first place. Since 2005 and the advent of the then IFI kitbot (Now AndyMark), the gap was narrowed dramatically. For those who were not around prior to 2005, the kitbot was a complete joke. It was nearly useless. This meant teams all but had to make a custom base/drive train. Many teams failed. I'd estimate that perhaps 20% or more of the teams could not drive reliably. Post 2005, everyone can have a reliable, robust base driving in under a week (and normally 2-3 days). Immobile robots are far less common now.

The introduction of AndyMark products in 2005 narrowed the gap even more. You wanted a shifting transmission prior to 2005? Well you had two options. Option one-use the drill motor transmissions that came in the kit and shift them with a servo. These were not shift on the fly. Option two-design, build, and test your own custom shifting transmission. Both of these options were labor intensive and were not trivial. Many teams who tried option number one couldn't do it reliably. Option number two was a LOT of work.

Along comes AndyMark in 2005. Suddenly anyone with $700 to spend can buy reliable two speed shift on the fly gearboxes for their robot. Now two speed robots are the norm, not the exception. Teams who normally made custom shifting transmissions can now use some COTS components to lessen the labor involved, or purchase the entire assembly to focus on other components of the robot.

These two events narrowed the gap between the haves and the have nots to a very small amount. The only physical differences between the very best 6WD drivetrains and a 6WD Super Shifter drive are weight and ease of maintenance.

Now along comes 2009. Everyone is thrown for a loop and forced to use standardized wheels and drive on FRP. What does this mean in terms of drivetrains? It's claimed that it will cause veteran teams to redesign and start from scratch.

I don't believe this is the case. If anything it made it easier for veterans. Shifting no longer became a priority. Drivetrains became simpler. We spent very little time redesigning our drivetrain and I think most veteran teams would say the same. Essentially all we did was remove one stage of gearing from our transmission and design/fabricate hubs to adapt the KOP wheels to a live axle system. We saved substantial amounts of time by not fabricating our own wheels and additional gearbox components.

With that time saved we were able to focus on a ball manipulation system (which gave veteran teams from 2006 an appreciable advantage. Our experience in 2006 was invaluable this year) and controls.

This is where the change gives the "haves" a huge advantage. Those teams with practice fields, practice robots, and more resources were able to do full scale testing on FRP and spend a lot of time developing traction control algorithms, as well as get their drive team tons of practice on the new surface. If anything this made the gap larger, as low budget teams cannot afford $1400 of FRP for a practice field or to construct a second robot.

In the end, I think the results on the field support this case. Look at the familiar faces on Einstein. Look at the elite teams. For the most part, they're the same as they always are. Sure there's some newcomers, but none are amongst the elite because of these changes. If anything the gap between the best robots and the worst robots was significantly larger this year than in past years. Prior to this year a bad alliance partner meant non contribution. This year it actively counts against you.

I think the game did narrow the gap in one sense only. This was the first year in which 3 average robots could beat 1, or even 2 great robots who had mediocre partners. But when it comes down to it, the best teams usually end up winning regardless.