[moderated] pic: The 2006 NiagaraFIRST Triplets!

[Andy Grady]

I agree...these are three very excelent robots, beautifually engineered and constructed, and for that, the Niagra FIRST teams should be proud.

I also go back to my point, I don't care if students, engineers, my aging grandmother, or a pack of monkeys builds the robot...as long as at least one student walks away inspired then the goal of FIRST has been reached.

With that said...I pose this question...

At what point does collaboration get out of control?

From a viewers standpoint, as a fan of the game, seeing three of the same robot can be quite boring. Match after match I can find it easy to become overly saturated with the clones. One thing over the years I have grown to love, is seeing how teams small and large handle the problems differently. Whether you have lots or little money, more or less engineers, mentor or student built...that uniqueness is something that has been special. I do not deny that making triplet bots has its own unique facet...but as a fan of the game, I'd just rather not see it.

Strategically, its has not been proven that colaboration actually helps teams succeed. Lets face it...the teams that have collaborated up to this point are proven teams...even if they were building on their own, they would probably do just as well. Also from a strategic standpoint...if you build three of the same robot, thats 2 less robots I have to scout for.

There are alot of arguements for or against collaboration...fact of the matter is, it is here to stay (at least for the time being), so as long as its legal, and NiagraFIRST feels that it is beneficial to the kids involved...more power to ya and good luck at the competition.

-Andy Grady