In 2020, we introduced The Open Alliance. We intentionally kept The Open Alliance small so we could learn how to walk before we ran. After two seasons of success and sharing, it’s time to take #openalliance to the next level.
Effective immediately, any team can be an #openalliance member.
We’ve set up a Github where we’ll host open source software, projects, and documentation.
We’ve also set up a Discord where each #openalliance team can have their own channel to post updates and encourage discussion.
Of course, we still encourage each #openalliance to create a build thread here on CD.
Don’t keep secrets
Sharing and learning is our competitive advantage, not secrets.
Don’t withold “that one detail” that makes an idea or mechanism work. If you share it, share it all.
Try to update 1 or more times per week.
Include analysis and notes
Include thoughts on what went well and what did not.
Use a platform that is conducive to asking and answering questions.
We recommend making official update posts in your build thread on ChiefDelphi and cross-posting to Discord for further discussion.
Try to share important information, or the results of important discussions, on both platforms.
Post lots of pictures and videos.
People love to look at pictures and videos
A picture really is worth 1000 words.
Open CAD and code are encouraged but not required.
Include the bad with the good.
We want a complete picture, not a highlight reel.
Posting the bad helps everyone learn.
Just wanted to tag on with some words of encouragement. Being a part of The Open Alliance during my time with 6328 truly felt like one of the better things I put effort into in my entire FRC career. Knowing that I was not only able to work with our student group to help educate them in building a competitive robot, but able to share this educational experience with many others outside the bubble of our team was incredible.
If your team is considering it, I highly suggest y’all give it a go, I can promise that the effort you put into documenting and sharing your process will be rewarded with connections to the community and feedback that will allow your team to build better robots in the end.
Spectrum 3847 and our development team 8515 are very excited to be a part of the open alliance and happy it is expanding to more teams. Sharing our designs and seeing other teams benefit is one of our favorite parts of the season. If you’re on the fence I highly recommend you do an open build and share what your team is doing.
I’ll pile on to say that participating in the #openalliance the last two years has been an incredible experience for students and also for us old fogey mentors. 6328 is 100% on board to continue for the 2022 season and can’t wait to see what other teams come up with!
I’m incredibly excited for this! I’ve recently joined a team that needs all the help we can get. We have motivated students and mentors, but we’ve also got a whole lot of room for improvement with only one real season under our belts. #openalliance is going to be a great tool for us to avoid reinventing the wheel. One of my first experiences in FRC was sitting in a design meeting trying to figure out how to pick up a power cube, and we spent entirely too much time making a piston claw. I’ve listened to @Michael_Corsetto give presentations on the “rolly claw” enough times to know that that’s the right path now, and I hope this project gives that same sort of realization to teams before they spend their time and money trying to make suboptimal solutions work.
Definitely added to my ever-growing list of resources to keep up with on a day-to-day basis.
After taking a season off from officially competing in FRC, Team Rembrandts is excited to return for the 2022 competition season. We will also continue our membership with #openalliance, we plan to share as much as possible of our analysis and prototyping during the early weeks of build season. We found it to be a great way to share with the community and raise the floor while also providing us with feedback on our designs and concepts.
In the offseason 4481 has been focused on the development of a new team department: Data Driven Decision Making. This group has been looking at historical data and how other teams complete game analysis to define how we will analyze future games. They have looked into historical OPR, game tasks, robot skills requirements lists, MCC robots, and resources developed by other teams. The goal, define what it will take to win a week 1/2 event and develop the robots requirements list to improve collective decision making and move the build season forward as fast as possible. More to come on this later.
Team 1339, AngelBotics of Denver Colorado, is happy that we get a chance to work with the Open Alliance this year. We are a mid-level team and we hope to share some stuff that is helpful for other teams looking to get good performance without trying to “do it all”. Our philosophy, decisions, designs, CAD, testing, and results will be available to anyone who wants them.
I’m very excited to be a part of the open alliance this year. Team 2713 will be publishing some preliminary stuff soon on a build thread, regarding machine access, space access, team goals, and other contextual information regarding our team for the upcoming season.
Team 3636 is excited to be the newest addition to the Open Alliance! We think this is a great resource to help other teams like us, who are still getting our footing after the pandemic, and for us to get serious about our own goals and design process. We may not be the most organized, but we want to share as much as we can, no matter how janky.
FRC 8728 - Argonauts, from Troy, MI have officially joined the Open Alliance!!!
We’re excited to contribute & assist teams as we are organizing ourselves for our rookie season!
Audeamus (FRC Team 8574) is thrilled to be joining The Open Alliance! We’re a rookie team from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and we’re excited to join the other FRC teams in The Open Alliance in learning, teaching, and discovering this year.
We will strive to be open and will be posting team updates/recaps every Saturday—stay tuned!
For more information, check out our website, email us at [email protected], or send a direct message to this account.
I tried to convinvce the team but they got scared our recording practices weren’t good enough. I will try to build up to join next year. Good luck, I love the work all open alliance teams do!
What an amazing opportunity! As a founding member of the Steel City Robotics Alliance, Team 2656 has always been interested in strengthening our region by sharing resources and building relationships with local teams. Quasics will join the Open Alliance for 2022 to showcase the power of open design and Coopertition while celebrating our 15th anniversary season!
Follow us on social media for updates!
Facebook: /Quasics
Twitter: @quasics
Instagram: @quasicsrc
YouTube: /FRC2656
The LigerBots 2877 are joining the Open Alliance! We are a student-led team from Newton, Massachusetts. We are excited to share our successes and failures.
Team 3161 - Tronic Titans Would like to officially join the open alliance! We are from Oakville Ontario, Canada and are very excited to be a part of this project!
The #openalliance is growing faster than ever! We’re now at 25 teams and counting! We’ve also got over 350 people in the Discord!
The Open Alliance is going to be generating a LOT of content this year, and we need your help. If you see something particularly awesome that an Open Alliance team shares, and you think it should get more attention, we’ve set up a #highlights channel on the Discord. Post a link to the content there, and we’ll select from that channel to make a curated list of highlights each week.