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FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
What's important to your team?
The “Desert Survival Scenario” (such as this one here) is a common team building exercise. This is the first draft of an FRC version that I may use with my team(s) as a team building exercise and to help the students understand the resource requirements of a successful FRC team (I'll add monetary value in the final draft). The Scenario: Your team must start over with nothing but the returning students from last season and the knowledge that they carry in their heads. You have no partners/sponsors/school, no money, no mentors, no facilities, no tools or materials. A parent on your team allows you to congregate in their unheated two-car garage while you regroup. A mysterious generous and magical benefactor comes forward and will grant your team an unspecified number of resources from a given list. Your team must rank the offered items/resources in order of importance to your team's success. The list is as follows...
1 - supportive in that they recognize the value in FRC and allow your team to recruit there, however they can’t provide you with any resources at all 2 - sufficient size for your team and property, if you don’t receive this resource you will continue to work and store all of your things in the unheated two-car garage. (you can not meet or store anything on the theoretical practice field. you can just drive.) Resources are not returnable or exchangeable. If your team qualifies for Worlds your generous and magical sponsor will pay the registration fee and travel expenses for you to compete, in addition to resources provided at the beginning of the season. Now roll a dice. Your team gets the first D20+10 items on your list! |
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Assumptions and reasoning:
EDIT: Just realized the max is 30 items! Byebye spirit items! |
Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
NOTE: This is my personal list, and most definitely does not represent all or even most of the members of Team 20.
1) Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts) 2) Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 3) A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 4) A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 5) Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 6) A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters 7) A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 8) Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 9) $500 Visa Debit Card 10) Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 11) Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 12) $500 voucher for AndyMark 13) An active teacher and supportive school of your choice (1) 14) Team Uniforms (sufficient quantity for all team members) 15) A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 16) Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 17) $500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 18) Drill press & bit set + Band saw 19) Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 20) A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 21) $500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 22) Team Meeting Area (2) 23) Lathe & tooling 24) Mill & tooling 25) Six additional batteries and chargers 26) Team Button Give Aways (sufficient quantity for all events) 27) $500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 28) Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 29) Laser OR water jet cutter 30) Sheet metal bending capabilities 31) 3 Axis CNC & tooling 32) $500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 33) Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events) 34) Welding capabilities My basic goal was to be a competitive, basic level FRC team. The kind that could get into eliminations at any FRC regional or district event. I also based the list off of myself (i.e. Programming and Electrical mentors are high up on the list because those are my blind spots.) I think that any team can build a competitive robot with some intelligence and my top 11 items. (You can substitute those mentors with mentors that suit your blind spots.) I have a non-engineering mentor in there not as much for award submissions, spirit, imagery, etc., but more for the financial, non-engineering mentorship aspects to be taken care of. After that it becomes things I'd like to have in order of preference. The most interesting part was discovering what I found to be the least important. The bottom four are guaranteed to not be in my list of items this team could have. 31) 3 Axis CNC & tooling- Do you really need CNC to succeed? 32) $500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot- I already have raw materials and vouchers for andymark/vexpro/McMaster, do I need Home Depot items? 33) Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events)- I already have team buttons, these are unnecessary. 34) Welding capabilities- This was the most interesting part to me, because my team welds their robots, but if I have the ability to work with sheet metal, I don't need this. And even without either, I can have a pretty good drivetrain with just the KOP drivetrain. I think I might bring this to our team's attention and see what comes of it. |
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Considering the laser or waterjet costs more than the entire rest of the list (even the combined salaries of the engineers listed), I would put that #1.
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Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
Where's the choice for dedicated students? That would be top on my list. Then every mentor listed. Add in the registration fees and the rest of the stuff will get done. Dedicated students getting taught by passionate mentors is my personal definition of a successful team.
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Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
I think the scenario would be a little clearer if you were to say that the team has tried every other company that could potentially sponsor them, and this is the only sponsor to say yes. If there is a possibility that other sponsors come in and give the team some more stuff, then people will be more inclined to pick stuff that is harder to get but not necessarily as important
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Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
I'll play...
1 Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts) 2 Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 3 A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters 4 A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 5 Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 6 Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 7 An active teacher and supportive school of your choice (1) 8 A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 9 Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 10 Team Meeting Area (2) 11 Six additional batteries and chargers 12 $500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 13 $500 voucher for AndyMark 14 $500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 15 A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 16 A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 17 Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 18 Lathe & tooling 19 Drill press & bit set + Band saw 20 $500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 21 $500 Visa Debit Card 22 Laser OR water jet cutter 23 A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 24 Team Uniforms (sufficient quantity for all team members) 25 Mill & tooling 26 $500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 27 Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 28 Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 29 3 Axis CNC & tooling 30 Sheet metal bending capabilities 31 Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 32 Team Button Give Aways (sufficient quantity for all events) 33 Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events) 34 Welding capabilities I'm assuming that any tools come with knowledge of operation... My list is different due to the fact that you said I keep my students. Which means I retain the resources they bring in. I have the benefit of being in a relatively affluent area in which almost all of my students have ready access to a computer at home. It also means I can expect students to cover their travel cost (we currently do) Options 1-11 are assured, this means I've done my best to build a group that can provide the next couple key items (most notably recruiting mentors and raising the small amount of funds needed to build a simple effective robot). 12-20 are things that would be nice to have given to me but that I can ultimately get given 1-11 and a few months of work. 21-34 are things that would be nice to have but ultimately don't impact my ability to get things done. In fact, I'd be willing to say that given 1-15 on my list (and some dedicated students) I could say with relatively few doubts that we could put together a solid robot that would play in the afternoon at almost any regional and has a high chance of seeding high. |
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1 Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts)
2 Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 3 A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 4 Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 5 $500 Visa Debit Card 6 Lathe & tooling 7 Laser OR water jet cutter 8 Sheet metal bending capabilities 9 Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 10 $500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 11 $500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 12 $500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 13 $500 voucher for AndyMark 14 $500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 15 Team Meeting Area (2) 16 Mill & tooling 17 A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 18 A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 19 A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 20 A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters 21 A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 22 3 Axis CNC & tooling 23 Team Uniforms (sufficient quantity for all team members) 24 Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 25 Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 26 Six additional batteries and chargers 27 An active teacher and supportive school of your choice (1) 28 Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 29 Drill press & bit set + Band saw 30 Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 31 Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 32 Welding capabilities 33 Team Button Give Aways (sufficient quantity for all events) 34 Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events) This was picked on the basis of building the best robot and assumes you have an awesome group of students. It's possible to run a successful team with only one mentor, hard but possible. Since most of the robot is going to be laser cut sheet metal, CAD experience is the most important. Students can pick up the programming, electrical, and other stuff pretty well from all the resources that exist and getting help from other teams. You can buy, craigslist, dumpster dive, etc. for a lot of the small tools and items that you need. Once you have a lathe, laser cutter, and CNC break there isn't much you can't make. The full practice area would be extremely beneficial to making a competitive robot. Several really great teams meet in a garage and figure out a way to get it done, but having a meeting space would be preferred. A robot cart can just be a $10 furniture dolly and pit shelves while nice are not needed. I also feel like buttons in FRC are dying down a bit, they aren't nearly as "required" as I remember them being. Handwritten notes of encouragement would be better giveaways than pretty much anything you could buy anyway, so why waste the spot. I'm hoping I role at least a 5. If we get a 1 we would probably move to a plywood laser cut robot like 1899. |
Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
You need to view this from a logical point of view. The first 11 are guaranteed. You get a laser cutter and sell it. Mentors/teachers can't be bought. Their worth is limitless. An area to work is also tough to find. Depending on what you roll, you may have to sell the CNC as well. With all that money you now have, you can buy pretty much everything else on the list. And if you have a lucky roll, you will have plenty of money to spare. Just like that you have everything on the list except for a laser cutter. With all that equipment and some smart decisions, you will have a very successful year, get a good sponsor who will buy you a laser cutter and anything else you need.
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Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
Doesn't EVERY Rookie team play this game during their FIRST year?.......maybe even with many less options.
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I also figured that this mythical sponsor would be allowing you to use their waterjet/laser cutter, not just granting you a waterjet/laser cutter machine. CNC could also be construed the same way, but maybe not. I don't know of any teams that own a waterjet or laser cutter. The teams I know of that use these have sponsors that allow them to use this equipment (i.e. we can use RPI's waterjet machine if we need to). I feel like there should be a better way to word the scenario so there is no corner-cutting in making your list. Or maybe the list should be altered so that it says "Waterjet/Laser Cutting Services" or something. |
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1.An active teacher and supportive school of your choice (1)
2.A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 3.A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 4.Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts) 5.A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 6.Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 7.Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 8.Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 9.Drill press & bit set + Band saw 10.A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 11.A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters 12.Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 13.$500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 14.$500 Visa Debit Card 15.$500 voucher for AndyMark 16.$500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 17.$500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 18.$500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 19.Team Meeting Area (2) 20.Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 21.Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 22.A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 23.Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 24.Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 25.Six additional batteries and chargers 26.Sheet metal bending capabilities 27.Mill & tooling 28.Laser OR water jet cutter 29.Lathe & tooling 30.3 Axis CNC & tooling 31.Welding capabilities 32.Team Uniforms (sufficient quantity for all team members) 33.Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events) 34.Team Button Give Aways (sufficient quantity for all events) |
Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
I'm amazed that so few of you are valuing the mentor with FRC design experience enough to put them in the guaranteed 11.
For my vote, the list looks more like this: 1 Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts) 2 Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 3 A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters 4 A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 5 Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 6 Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 7 An active teacher and supportive school of your choice (1) 8 A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 9 Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 10 Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 11 Drill press & bit set + Band saw 12 $500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 13 $500 voucher for AndyMark 14 $500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 15 A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 16 A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 17 Welding capabilities 18 Lathe & tooling 19 Six additional batteries and chargers 20 $500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 21 $500 Visa Debit Card 22 Laser OR water jet cutter 23 A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 24 Team Uniforms (sufficient quantity for all team members) 25 Mill & tooling 26 $500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 27 Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 28 Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 29 3 Axis CNC & tooling 30 Sheet metal bending capabilities 31 Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 32 Team Button Give Aways (sufficient quantity for all events) 33 Unique Team Give Away (sufficient quantity for all events) 34 Team Meeting Area (2) To me, this exercise is mostly interesting in terms of what things are in the guaranteed 11. Multi-regional teams with good mentors and lots of practice are considerably more successful than any other combination of these things. Thus, the resources required for that are more important than anything else on this list. Don't need a team meeting area if you have a fullsize practice area. Meet there. |
Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
Thanks for the replies everybody! It's good for beta testing of sorts. I'll have to make some edits and clarify wording for the final version, and then I'll post it as a whitepaper (if you run across this in a few weeks or more and would like a final version that I still haven't posted, feel free to pester me for it, extra motivation wouldn't be amiss).
On the issue of the water/laser jet cutter I had actually intended to say capabilities but it is what it is at the moment. Part of these types of exercises is to generate discussion so it hasn't turned out so bad the way it is. For those with the idea to sell it, don't forget that finding a buyer for big ticket items can take a significant amount of time and that attempting to rush the sale will result in lower revenue from the sale. I'll probably change it back to "capabilities" for the final but we'll see where this goes. Maybe I'll switch it with welding so that you can have a welding machine outright and capabilities for water/laser jet cutting? Perhaps I'll clarify in the final that if you have the machine outright you have to rely on your mechanical engineering mentor to teach the students to use it effectively (or add a line item for "A mentor with expertise in fabrication and machining") and if you have capabilities an expert will take your CAD drawings and do the work for your team (such as sending it out for fabrication). On the issue of practice field vs. meeting space, I had generally assumed that the practice field was not an acceptable meeting/storage/work location (perhaps because it's a shared practice field?). Maybe I'll reword that such that the open area is included in "meeting space" and "practice field" adds the carpet, driver stations, and game elements. I feel like in general there's a point of diminishing returns with these types of activities wherein it becomes overly complicated and takes away from the experience, so I'm attempting to find that balance where the scenario reasonably achieves the goals and hidden freedoms generate discussion without making it ridiculous. Additionally, I'm trying to write it to be fairly broadly applicable to the wide variety of FRC team management styles. As is, there's inherent "unfairness" in FRC and I do want the scenario to reflect that such that individual teams can frame the exercise as it relates to their particular socio-economic situation. As Andrew Schreiber noted, teams from more affluent areas are more likely to be able to depend on the personal assets of their students. In the same vein some teams may reasonably be able to assume that individual families will be able to cover travel expenses for their children, purchase team uniforms, etc. Pault - Good suggestion. I'll integrate that into the final version for the sake of simplicity to limit the scope of the discussion. Allison |
Re: FRC "Survival Scenario" Exercise
1)Initial registration fee (1 regional OR 2 districts)
2)Registration Fee for additional regional OR district championship 3)A mentor of your choice with FRC strategic design expertise 4)Basic hand tools + Measurement tools + Electrical tools (nothing powered) 5)Basic power tools (Cordless drill + bit set, Dremel, etc.) 6)Laser OR water jet cutter 7)$500 Visa Debit Card 8)$500 voucher for McMaster-Carr 9)Lathe & tooling 10)Full Size Practice Area (Space, Carpet, Driver Stations - No Game Elements) 11)$500 worth of raw material (aluminum, steel, polycarb) 12)$500 voucher for AndyMark 13)A mentor of your choice with programming expertise 14)A mentor of your choice with mechanical engineering expertise 15)3 Axis CNC & tooling 16)Team Meeting Area (2) 17)A mentor of your choice with CAD/Inventor expertise 18)$500 voucher for VEX/VEX Pro 19)Six additional batteries and chargers 20)Pit Set Up of your choice + Robot Cart 21)Belt sander + grinder + arbor press 22)Mill & tooling 23)Drill press & bit set + Band saw 24)$500 voucher for Lowe’s or Home Depot 25)Travel expenses (hotel, transportation, food) for two competition events 26)Two Laptops with OS + Internet access 27)Sheet metal bending capabilities 28)Welding capabilities 29)A mentor of your choice with electrical engineering expertise 30)A mentor of your choice with expertise in all non-engineering matters Reasoning: Much of the reasoning is based on our students and our value for mentors. Every student on our team is required by our school to have a computer. Our students can CAD, wire, and program a robot by ourselves, though extra mentors are always nice. Also students would be expected to pay for trips to regionals, their uniforms, etc. I think we need at least one mentor(guranteed). Personally I believe that in any mentor, frc experience is very valuable. I would take a good frc design mentor, because they would have the experience in frc to know how to use resources efficiently to build a simple robot that uses all of our limited resources to the maximum. Furthermore, I would expect them to be able to help out with coordination and CAD. Waterjet, lathe, and power/hand tools let us build a very effective robot. Without a mill, waterjet parts can be used as templates. I think this is the absolute minimum to build a competitive robot(with these resources a regional winning robot can be built). Practice field gives us space for poractice which is essential, and vouchers give us enough money to buy most of the material we need to build our simple, but effective robot. After our guaranteed items, extra vouchers give us more money to buy more materials/items we need. Extra mentors help with workload and also help patch up holes in our student body. The mechanical mentor is especially important, because he/she allows enables us to use the cnc machine. The cnc covers most of the other tools, including knee mill and drill press. Other jobs can be done by hand(arbor press is the exception but it by itself doesn't validate the spot). Items 1-15 allows us to build a regional winning robot. 1-20 would make our lives a bit easier doing that. If monetary values were included, I'd imagine this list would look a bit different. I would imagine the cnc would be a high monetary value, and therefor the manual mill would make a lot more sense. |
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