What Have Been The Gains Over The Past 20 Years In FRC?

[JaneYoung]

Do you think the secrecy has changed to openness because of the attitude of the engineers or has it been one of culture change led by the engineers - or am I saying the same thing, basically?

Jane

P.S. The satin sheet w/zippers would make a great museum piece - showing the history/mentality of the times.

[Jared Russell]

I was just going to add the same thing...collaboration!

(Chris is dead-on with regards to technical gains - I would add the availability of high level programming languages and software frameworks to facilitate "out of the box" advanced robot functionality)

But collaboration...that's HUGE! First there's the sharing of designs on Chief Delphi - both those that are tried and true (like 45's shifter) and those that are hypothetical (all those myriad chassis models you see every other day). Even if you don't plan on building the mechanism yourself, being a fly-on-the-wall for some of the back-and-forth in the comments section can be incredibly educational. Hopefully something like Behind the Design can be rejuvenated (I'm in, who's with me!) to capture all of it formally.

There's also collaboration in the 254/968/60 and 1114/1503/1680 sense - multiple teams pooling their resources to produce superior robots. Less dramatic, but more common, collaboration sees teams frequently sharing work and practice spaces, machine shop access, or parts.

Why is collaboration so ubiquitous now when 10+ years ago it was much less common? 2 reasons IMO:

1. Alliances. Remember that prior to 1999, you didn't have any teammates. Prior to 2006 (2001 is a special case), you didn't have TWO teammates. If you want to go all the way in contemporary FRC, you better have good partners...so collaboration really does pay off, even for the top teams.

2. Awards. FIRST has been consistent in their praise for teams who raise the bar of collaboration. Andy Baker's WFA. Team 254's CCA. Other CCA teams like 341 and 365 may not build robots collaboratively, but they promote the growth and nurturing of others through an institutional form of collaboration. Teams notice what is said during award speeches, and try to emulate those who have been rewarded.

[IKE]

Originally Posted by Jared341

1. Alliances.

2. Awards. .

3. Great examples leading the way (see Technokats post above).

In a nutshell, you get the behaviours that you reward, but you also need someone to show the way. Someone needs to show the way otherwise everyone will sit back and be comfortable with previous philosophies until they become uncomfortable.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

I noticed that things were changing in 1997. Although some teams were still reluctant, many teams shared and had already gained a sense of helping others by the time of the first Midwest Regional. Although there were no alliances, many teams, Technokats and Bomb Squad just to name two, were very open. It was at that time that students began to be encouraged to look at other teams for ideas. By the time of the 1998 Champs, our students were given homework to go look for something cool in other pits and report back. We were all just learning at that time. It is the first time in my memory that we were actually encouraging students from other teams to take pictures and ask questions.
To this day, I still get "You do what!?!?!" when I tell people about sharing and gracious professionalism.

[JaneYoung]

Any other gains, anyone?

Jane

[JaneYoung]

After watching the Kick Off yesterday, I was blown away by the thought behind the use of the logo for this year's game. The game is challenging teams to think outside of many boxes - not just the ones that concern building the robots. By doing so, our FIRST leaders are challenging us to move forward into the future and work with the growing pains that come with developing the programs, helping to make their vision of FIRST, a reality.

Yay!

Jane

[Hawiian Cadder]

from a standpoint of CAD the developments have been huge, when my team first started cadding the robot way back a long time ago they had 2d drawings and no assemblies or anything, last year we ran a lot of FEA and stress tests on parts that saved us a lot of time later. also the way solid works and autocad are sponsoring first teams is fantastic.

[rsisk]

When did the ChiefDelphi forums start? I notice the archives go back to 1999. Maybe having a place to share ideas also helped nurture openness.

I also think there has been a general shift toward openness and sharing prompted by the internet generation where information is so much easier to share.