Advice for robot transportation to championships

[dardeshna]

Team 8 will be attending championships for the first time in several years, so we are starting from square one as far as robot transportation and shipping to championships.

Just looking for some advice on how to ship the robot... Do most teams bring two crates? Wooden vs metal crate? How exactly does the FedEx donation apply to championships? How does the shipping process work in general? How do you get batteries to the competition? Do they supply batteries?

Sorry for exhaustive number of questions, and I know there are already some threads about this out there, but they are mostly older threads. Any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Devin (FRC 8 Paly Robotics)

[CalTran]

Section 5.7 (https://firstfrc.blob.core.windows.net/frc2016manuals/AdminManual/FRC-2016-admin-manual-05.pdf)

[I_AM_Clayton]

Team 8 will be attending championships for the first time in several years, so we are starting from square one as far as robot transportation and shipping to championships.

Just looking for some advice on how to ship the robot... Do most teams bring two crates? Wooden vs metal crate? How exactly does the FedEx donation apply to championships? How does the shipping process work in general? How do you get batteries to the competition? Do they supply batteries?

Sorry for exhaustive number of questions, and I know there are already some threads about this out there, but they are mostly older threads. Any insight and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Devin (FRC 8 Paly Robotics)

Make sure to have the proper paperwork on your crate, (read the robot packaging and transportation section of the manual mentioned in the above post). We simply built 1 sturdy wooden crate (it worked out just fine for us). Last year when we qualified for champs we had fedex come and pick it up from our school once school was out. I'm not sure about the fedex donation question. Regarding batteries, you bring those on your own with the rest of your tools (I assume this, my team is located in St. Louis so we don't fly) I'm not sure about batteries on a flight (I know that they don't allow it internationally).

[jds2001]

Make sure to have the proper paperwork on your crate, (read the robot packaging and transportation section of the manual mentioned in the above post). We simply built 1 sturdy wooden crate (it worked out just fine for us). Last year when we qualified for champs we had fedex come and pick it up from our school once school was out. I'm not sure about the fedex donation question. Regarding batteries, you bring those on your own with the rest of your tools (I assume this, my team is located in St. Louis so we don't fly) I'm not sure about batteries on a flight (I know that they don't allow it internationally).

Ship the batteries in your crate, along with the robot. The verbiage that has to be on the crate to allow this to happen is in the shipping crate construction (http://www.firstinspires.org/sites/default/files/uploads/resource_library/frc/game-and-season-info/robot-transportation/2016/2016-shipping-crate-construction.pdf) document. SLA batteries cannot be transported via air (domestic or international).

[tmalecek]

Anyone have any CAD drawings or pictures for the crate? I've read through Section 5.7 already, but I'm concerned about the "must be able to withstand stacking" rule. How sturdy do you guys build these?

Thanks.

[EricH]

Anyone have any CAD drawings or pictures for the crate? I've read through Section 5.7 already, but I'm concerned about the "must be able to withstand stacking" rule. How sturdy do you guys build these?

Thanks.
Assume that you'll have an overloaded crate on top of yours, which then gets a forklift tine through the side. (I've seen a metal crate take some obvious forklift damage, and several wooden crates have taken SOMETHING falling through them...)

I realize that doesn't help much...

[Mark McLeod]

Shipping Crate Construction: http://www.firstinspires.org/node/3846

[rich2202]

Some creative teams have designed their crate so that it can be used as part of their pit. Saves on having to get rid of your crate, and waiting to get it back.

[tmalecek]

What about robot transportation after the event?

We are shipping our robot to Worlds because we are required to. It would be much more convenient for us to drive it ourselves. After Worlds, we are hosting our end-of-year celebration and I'd like to have our robot available for parents to see and for siblings to drive. However, I'm concerned we won't have it back since the instructions state it may be 6-8 weeks.

While we can take the robot, we cannot transport the crate. Are we allowed to take the robot with us and ship the empty crate back? We've built our crate with shelving to use for future years.

Thanks.

[Cory]

What about robot transportation after the event?

We are shipping our robot to Worlds because we are required to. It would be much more convenient for us to drive it ourselves. After Worlds, we are hosting our end-of-year celebration and I'd like to have our robot available for parents to see and for siblings to drive. However, I'm concerned we won't have it back since the instructions state it may be 6-8 weeks.

While we can take the robot, we cannot transport the crate. Are we allowed to take the robot with us and ship the empty crate back? We've built our crate with shelving to use for future years.

Thanks.

There is really no way anyone would know what is or isn't inside of your crate when it leaves the event.

[cgmv123]

There is really no way anyone would know what is or isn't inside of your crate when it leaves the event.

Unless the outbound weight is ~120 lbs less than the inbound weight.

[Cory]

Unless the outbound weight is ~120 lbs less than the inbound weight.

Nobody is checking though.

[GeeTwo]

What about robot transportation after the event?

We are shipping our robot to Worlds because we are required to. It would be much more convenient for us to drive it ourselves. After Worlds, we are hosting our end-of-year celebration and I'd like to have our robot available for parents to see and for siblings to drive. However, I'm concerned we won't have it back since the instructions state it may be 6-8 weeks.

While we can take the robot, we cannot transport the crate. Are we allowed to take the robot with us and ship the empty crate back? We've built our crate with shelving to use for future years.

Thanks.

This is about where we were last year. You are required to use the "free" shipping to get your robot to CMP, but you may bring the robot back by separate channels by filing a form that says you will provide transportation for your robot back to your build site.

It took a bit, but I located the proper sections in the admin manual:

5. All teams attending the FIRST Championship will receive (1) one shipment home for their robot under the FedEx donation. The FedEx shipping document for this shipment will be distributed at FIRST Championship at Check Out.
a. This shipping document will be pre-printed with the shipping information that you provided before Championship.
6. If the team would like to take their robot home as they leave FIRST Championship, they MUST email frclogistics@firstinspires.org to have their request approved by April 22, 2016

You still have a few days.

If you miss this deadline, I sincerely doubt that FIRST would notice if you sent a bunch of spare parts (or even scrap metal) back rather than your robot, as long as it was in your crate.