Re: What makes a good pit?
 

When it comes to a durable and reliable pit, there are a few things that my team has considered in great length. Here are some things that went into the discussion back during my 3 year run as Safety Captain:

-A bin for things that should stay out; Our safety captains take their job seriously and they put away everything as soon as it is set down and sometimes there can be confusion as to whether or not the tool or part should still be out or not. Have a place for things that need to stay out that aren't on top of carts.

-Another thing is use the 5S' (Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize, Sustain) to figure out what you truly need for an event and what is just extra weight. Then, once you know for sure what you need, make a cart with a specific place for each thing.

Re: What makes a good pit?
 

Off the top of my head, the essential elements of a great pit:

• Organized and quickly accessible storage for any parts or tools needed for robot repair.
• A reasonable amount of countertop or table space to do work on.
• Enough room for people to work on 3 sides of the robot at a time. Robot can fit in "center" of pit with people all around it, with minimal spill-over into the walkway.
• An unobtrusive solution for battery / charger storage and use.
• Easy to load / unload; as many rolling or quick-assemble elements as possible.

There's a bunch of other features that make pits better (lighting, storage for everyone's jackets / personal crap, etc) but these are the vital requirements.

I'll try and find a picture of 2791's pit from this year later. We've been working on it bit by bit since 2011, and I really like where it's at now. A bunch of custom rolling cabinets, a few collapsible shelves, and our rolling toolbox make up two sides of the perimeter, and there's enough room in a 10x10 to put the robot in the middle.

Re: What makes a good pit?
 

For short events or events where bringing a trailer is difficult, I prefer to keep it so everything can fit into the trunk of a full-size sedan and a minivan, SUV, or truck bed. The stuff we bring must fit this requirement. This means taking a lot of those large plastic crates we receive in the KOP. This makes transport super painless. We handle all of our off-seasons this way (5-6/year)

For multiple-day events where we are bringing a trailer along, wheeling everything in pre-organized can be handy for the toolbox and some storage. We try to keep everything flexible though, in case we get a corner pit. Stacked shipping crates usually become extra tables and store probably-won't-need-it-but-just-in-case spare parts in odd otherwise-empty holes under the provided table, etc.

We also use foam flooring for in-season events.