Dan,
I joined Vex AI back in 2020, having transferred from the 2019-2020 FTC season that had been cut short due to COVID.
In September of 2020, my team received the new parts, and as excited as we were to get started, we were met with confusion on what went where, how to use the provided system and integrate it with our code, with little documentation by our side. My team spent that season day and night working out of members’ garages to build two robots for the change up season, excited to soon compete.
The lack of updates about sensors, software, or competition dawned on me as we worked though. By March of 2021, word had become that VAIC would continue onto the next season before sensors were shipped or planned events occurred. A local high school tournament of four teams was announced later for May, three teammates attended, and with that our season ended.
One year.
During the tipping point year, my team was finally back in person. As our hardware remained unsupported for the new game, we worked hard at making our own software with Intel Realsense cameras; through the absence of sensors that were meant to release in Q3 of 2021, Q4 of 2021, before the end of the year, very soon, no update followed, late September at the earliest, October.
Registration for the Tipping Point season opened in January of 2022. My team registered, and we continued working through the next few months.
On June 3rd 2022, the July 16th VAIC competition—and the season with it—was canceled by a four sentence email.
Two years.
Back when I was a first-year student, I dreamed of being able to go back to competing once quarantine ended. The thrill inspired me: putting my team’s robot up to the test, revealing its strengths and weaknesses against other teams, comparing strategies and designs and being one with the robotics community.
But two years later, I found myself holding back tears to the empty robotics lab as sibling vex teams competed out of state. I was so happy for them - yet I was still awaiting an opportunity to do the same.
Today, I am a senior. This is my third year doing Vex AI. It has been two and a half years since I have attended a competition.
This year, I am continuing with the same uncertainty. I am exhausted. I am hurt.
I’m writing this to illustrate how difficult this has been for myself and others. Working years towards a constantly changing goal, only for it to vanish into thin air, is a crushing feeling. I would like to make a few suggestions.
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The VAIC season should not pend on the release of official sensors. It has been made clear that teams are capable of developing their own vision software, or otherwise writing non vision based software, such as code to move to specific points on the field using GPS that can later be integrated with the 3D vision sensor.
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More transparency on competition status is needed. The scarcity of updates and unanswered requests for clarity make it difficult for teams to understand the RECF’s plans for the competition, and adds to the uncertainty.
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The student experience needs to be considered a little more. There are capable students who actively try to achieve what this program promises, and even more that want to be a part of it, only to be rebuffed by delays to no end.
I entirely understand the development of the 3D vision sensor has been difficult for the VAIC team due to supply chain shortages and the unfortunate timing of COVID-19, but change needs to happen. Thank you to the entire VAIC team for the dedication through the past few years. It still means so much to me.
Dan, I truly hope that when I graduate I can remember this competition in a different light.
mae