What does your team do during the summer?
 

Title says it all. Do you continue to meet during the summer, and if so what do you do? Or maybe some teams don't formally meet but are active in other ways. How much does the summer impact your success* year to year.

*Success can be defined in a number of ways, both robot related and non-robot related.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

1058 meets throughout the summer every year. We have three basic things we like to do during the summer, and those things are Community/sponsor outreach, preparing our shop and storage areas for the next season, and a fun engineering side project to show off. For our outreach, 1058 hosts roboexpo at a local mall and invites other NH teams (last year we had 3467, 131, and 1922) to come show off their robots to the public. We also visit a local kindergarten, and walk in our towns annual parade with our robot. We also spend a good 3-4 meetings just cleaning out all of our storage areas in our school just to keep things tidy. As for the side projects, in the past we have built a t-shirt launching robot and a drivable Couch (with horn and head lights). Really 1058 never gets bored during the summer. As for impacting our success, the summer brings us closer together as a team because of all the fun we get to have, and it also helps our case for Chairmans Award because of all the outreach we do (I didn't list everything above).

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

1676 does mostly nothing, but some members work on select community service projects as necessary.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

3787 is in it's first year of year-round meeting (3rd year team). We are going to do a post-season build, grants/fundraising, new website, and safety animation video (though we may need to change it after FIRST gives us the 2014 theme for it). As a small team, around ten or less active members, we can't do very many projects within the summer. (Some of these projects will extend into the fall)

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

June was intense with...

3 FLL day camps
1 Science & Engineering themed camp
1 We-do LEGO camp
1 VEX based day camp.
Booth at local street fair
Maker Fair

July

State Wide Presentation for Superintendents

August

State Fair
Back to School recruiting

There is a little tinkering in the shop along the way for interested students, but nothing too formal.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

Our team is currently undergoing intense robotics summer projects, grant/funding writeups and acquisitions, modifications of 2013 robot for IRI/TRR, ordering of equipment/materials, traveling to technology conferences, seminars, tournaments, and training.

I mentioned this on my FB account, but our program has already acquired $76k out of our $120k goal for Summer 2013 - May 2014 covering VEX and FRC expenses. We are invested in VEX (and the new IQ) as much as FRC and spend quite a bit of time on the business plan in budgeting to meet next year's expectations and goals.

Funding and success is no accident. We arguably spend the most time similar to that of other successful FRC teams in preparation for any project we venture into.

Personally, I give up my entire summer and many weekends/breaks unpaid for the success of our team along with all of our volunteer mentors and students. We have found that by getting a headstart immediately after CMP, makes a huge difference in the amount of effort needed to meet our goals, albeit in order to survive!

Some new things we are discussing in formal/informal meetings:
-Going to Japan for a Robotics Exhibition Forum for High School students and participating in a Japan VEX Tournament the following week.
-We are confirmed to go to the 2015 Australian Regional if it comes to fruition.
-We are talking about going to either Calgary or Montreal in 2014 if the schedule permits and are working with Mr. Mark Breadner in helping us make it possible.
-Starting an LLC whose main focus is to support our program and its initiatives. We have some successful alumni willing to help us with their experiences and successes as business owners, including overseas in China.
-Getting our Waterjet up and operational.
-After a visit last week at FRC Headquarters and seeing the latest equipment that Dean Kamen has purchased, I am inspired to be the 1st High School to get the same, if possible, which I found WAY more cool than a Waterjet. :)

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

Team 2950 "The Devastators" is working in summer to get prepared for the TRR. but right after the CMP we got our team together and did some scouting and we have our new team. Then one of our robotics members are went to a local robotics camp and built a vex bot for the game Clean sweep. he made his own team with students their and took home first, and inspired kids about robotics. We even got to show off our robot their. Then our buissness side has been trying to raise money 60k right now. So in all we are getting serious.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

1540's been doing some demos for the summer camps at our school (and a few lab tours today, during which I managed to scare the crap out of some second graders who hadn't realized that the robot could move). We also run a LEGO summer camp, and we're doing some research on an outreach project that we'll be working on. That's just the team stuff.
I'm already thinking about next year's Chairman's submission (it's a blessing and a curse, but mostly a curse), writing the essay a little, and just generally theorizing/worrying about different possible scenarios.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

I build quadcopters over the summer? :D

It depends, due to graduating folks the team is pretty fresh. So they meet up twice weekly to learn/work on projects. As well as prep for off season.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

We don't do a whole lot.
We participate in the Junteenth demo.
We go participate @ MARC.
We have been participating in the Monroe County Fair Rochester Rampage Demo (but due to the situation with the fair this year that is in jeopardy)
Demo at the New York State Fair
Some members are trying to secure additional funding for the team for next season so we can go to the championships.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

We try to fill in the holes in our basic knowledge. So for instance, this summer we are trying to learn how to use pneumatics, which is an area we have little experience. We've found that the during the build season you really have to count on the skills you have already mastered, not a good time to learn new basic skills.

This summer we've had an open work session on Thursday nights and it has been pretty well attended. A core group works on several projects and the casual attendees help out.

One of our elderly mentors (me) is getting his first experience at coding using an Arduino. Just because he wants to. He is building a vex-sized bot to test.

An of course we try to raise money, sort through our junk, make lists of what we need if we had money, etc.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

Our team is having our most active summer in three years. Part of this is due to attending IRI. We are working on all those small tasks we never got to and other fun projects for 2014.

We just finished a 5 week demonstration at a theme park near us participating in their education month.

We are giving our robot some much needed love after 4 events and 2 complete rebuilds.

We are making a new climber to add a second CIM motor and try new manufacturing techniques with new materials as well as try out anodizing.

We have designed a new swerve drive inspired by 1717 and 973 that we will manufacture and test after IRI.

Our most focused and organized fundraising attempt will begin in August.

One of our college mentor's is leading a project with the freshman to tear down and rebuild our 2012 robot and fix a few problems that arose to make it more reliable for demos.

That is all for now.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

We just attended MidKnight Mayhem and will be going to IRI (for the 4th consecutive year). The competition focus is on training next year's drive team.

Other than this, we run some projects and focus on training. We meet once a week during the summer; keeping it light.

We also keep active on community outreach and, of course, fundraising for the coming year.

There is also a team picnic each summer.

On top of this, we've got another move coming after IRI. This time, to a permanent home. I am very much looking forward to putting our wandering ways (and wandering days) behind us.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

Team 4080 focuses on training new members and practicing our individual skills as well as preparing for off season events.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

2486 is usually pretty busy during the summer.

We've done a couple community service projects.

We've done some fundraising events.

Two weeks ago student leadership put on a week-long series of workshops for the younger kids on the team leadership skills and some other tools and information to be ready for this coming year.

This week we made a Independence Day parade float and yesterday we were in the parade and had a team BBQ.

This coming week we are prepping for our two week NXT camp (we'll have about 100 students over two full weeks).

We've been working with potential sponsors and partners and will be presenting at a conference soon.

We also have a day planned with Flagstaff Medical Center for CPR, AED, and First Aid training for the entire team.

That's about it until school starts back up in the second week of August, then Outreach, FLL, and FTC really pick up for us.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

Do tell! :O

Off season
 

I have heard about teams who use the off season to perfect things like swerve drive and other mechanisms. I'm trying to get my mentors to approve off season prototyping but they keep quoting the rule that says whatever you build in the off season cant be used on the competition bot. How do teams work on things like swerve without being in violation of that rule? Surly you cant build a whole new swerve drive in the 6 weeks?

Re: Off season
 

It is true that what you build during offseason, you cannot use for the next season. But there is more to it. If you DESIGN a gearbox or a swerve drive offseason etc., it must be publicly available in order for you to use it the next season. (I'm not sure if a picture/illustration counts, or it has to be a CAD/drawing.)

Edit: ..to my knowledge.

Re: Off season
 

As far as I'm aware...
You can build/prototype things (swerve drive, mecanum drive, etc.) as long as what you build does not go on any future competing robots. As long as you aren't starting the build of any part of your robot, you are in the clear.

Re: Off season
 

Section 4.1.4 - Fabrication Schedule

If you read the blue box for clarification under the rule, it lists some more specific examples of what you can and cannot do. Basically, you can design and build prototypes and such in the offseason, but you can't then use the exact prototype you built on a robot, unless it is publicly available prior to Kickoff. This applies to both hardware and software.

Re: Off season
 

Never underestimate teams. Your mentors are right that nothing you build before the build season can be used on the competition robot. And there is no way (at least in the spirit of gracious professionalism) to get around that rule. In fact, there are limitations to what you can do with CAD models that you make during the offseason. Of course, the rules about that could change next year, but the chances of that happening are slim and not something you should expect.

So yes, teams really do build swerve drives in the offseason just to do it all again during the build season. And not just swerve drives. Building practice robots in the offseason is a practice that countless good and great teams do. Why? Because the offseason is a time to try out new things, to train your students, and to get new students excited about the upcoming season. And in my opinion (and I'm definitely not alone in this opinion), a practice robot is the best way to accomplish these things.

I'm saying this because I know from experience. Last year, my team didn't get to build an offseason robot, and test out a new idea we had. But when the build season came, we decided we wanted to use this new idea even though it was untested. So about halfway through the build season, we realized that BECAUSE WE DIDN'T PRACTICE IT IN THE OFFSEASON, weren't going to be able to do it in time, and had to scrap the idea and with most of our progress. From there, everything just became a disaster for our team, trying to make up for the time we had lost. We ended up working ~75 hours during the last 7 days of build, and yet we still failed and ended up finishing our robot at our first competition; we didn't even get to compete very much. As a result, our robot never reached its full potential, and although my team still had an awesome season, it could have been MUCH better, if only we had built that practice robot.

Edit: I need to learn that every post doesn't need to be a full out essay :rolleyes:

I'm in no way trying to get past this rule. A couple of teammates and i would like to build a practice bot using many new ideas that we have found reading through the forums(swerve, octocanum, elevators things like that) to eventually use on a competition robot. i was just looking for clarification on what i need to do to be able to use these ideas in competition. Do we just need to post a cad on here? Should we avoid building a functional prototype?

Re: Off season
 

If you plan on using whatever you build in the offseason directly on your robot, a picture of the prototype or a CAD drawing should be acceptable. If you are just building something to try things, but know it will not be an actual part of your robot, then there's no need (although I'm sure chief Delphi wouldn't mind seeing your work!)

Re: Off season
 

From what I can tell (reading through the rules and CD) it would appear that you can build whatever you like in the offseason however, what you build cant go on a competition robot. If you build something you want on a competition robot in the offseason, you must rebuild another one during the build season.

Re: What does your team do during the summer?
 

We meet during the offseason around 2 days a week. A lot of it is for team members to hone their skills (CADing a swerve module, trying to lay out the entire electrical system in a tiny space, driving around a kitbot drivetrain) or for team members to learn new skills. We also look back at the previous season and work on ways that we can improve (changing up the pit, developing scouting spreadsheets of god-tier complexity, things like that). During the fall, new members compete in a vex-scale competition held by a local team (1625). It helps introduce new members to the high-intensity build process and competition.

The impact we see is great, because if we recruit students early, they get to get used to the team dynamic. It's also a great way of forming ties with local teams by participating in offseason events. Last year we increased training for all members during the offseason with student leaders and mentors leading small projects. We saw principles we learned applied successfully this year, which made our team and robot stronger than ever. It's really just a matter of setting goals for your team.

Re: Off season
 

Our team has a current rev of our swerve drive project (it still needs some more revs before we produce it). If our team wanted to make a swerve drive during the 2014 build season we would completely start from scratch using what we learned from our fall project to help us design it. We aren't taking files, we are taking knowledge from a previous system, finding how we can improve/refine it, and making a new one.

The reason this helps is because 6 weeks isn't enough time to design, test, and refine our first swerve drive. Its something we need to practice like programming, machining, and electrical training in the fall. Making complicated projects in the fall gives you the opportunity to really learn and dive into a projects giving different stages more time and thought you wouldn't have time for during the build season making it a better learning experience.

Your mentors are correct though, whatever you design/make before kickoff can't be used on your competition robot but you will have learned so much about making a swerve drive that making another will be very, very easy.

This rule is in place so teams don't spend 8 months of the previous year building a ton of simple and complex parts they could potentially use on their next robot or once the season starts they send out CAD files of parts they have been working on in the off-season.

New season, start over.