FIRST Robotics Wish List

[Gui Cavalcanti]

Here are my thoughts... don't know if they're worth much.

- Inspectors who have kept up with the rules updates and know their stuff, and who can recognize a van door motor from a chiaphua. A more comprehensive electrical and mechanical checklist would be great - their favorite words were "file those edges", and that was it.

- More judge coverage. I know there are only so many judges, but having only two spend 2 minutes with a team doesn't do many teams justice. Maybe a bit longer, or more judges patrolling the pit areas? I never saw too many...

- Enhanced pneumatics, I definitely agree. My pneumatically-driven Internal Combustion Engine model on a FIRST robot is still quite a ways away. More tanks, cylinders from anywhere... maybe a better compressor? Either that or a "black box" compressor that you don't have to mount with rubber feet (thanks goes out to the team members who decided to put the feet on with locknuts right before the chassis had to go to the welders...).

- More small electronics. The game is still virtually entirely based on the mechanical competence of the team - programming and electronics are wallowing in the dust. Let custom sensors be anywhere on the robot as long as they follow the FIRST rules of electrical systems - no grounding to the chassis, no open-air electric surfaces, etc. We could've done incredible trigonometric calculations with those optical sensors with a secondary basic stamp, if the sensors didn't have to be in the "black box" to be part of the package. And up the money level on those digikey parts.

- For crying out loud, change the playing field. Carpet has been mastered by the veterans and the rookies are generally left in the dust.

- Open up the default materials some. Aluminum and steel are fine, why are they restricted on types (i.e. 410's C steel)?

- Bring back the featherweight award! Teams need to be rewarded for how light they can make these robots, considering most of us are drilling holes while a select few stand back and watch with a smirk.

- More servomotors! Servomotors are excellent ways to control your robot's smaller parts, but only a few are allowed. There are tons of PWM outputs that remain unused...

That's all I can think of for right now.