Robot Access Period Questions
 

So, our team is doing a district event this year, and we had a few questions about the robot access period mentioned in the administrative section of the manual.

The purpose of the access period seems to be to make up for missing the first day of a normal regional. We get to unbag the robot for 6 hours. During this time, we can "practice with the robot" or "perform any activity they [the team] would normally do during the build season". What is the limit to the amount of changes I can make? Could I unbag the robot, remove my shooter, and put on my practice robot's shooter? Is there a withholding allowance? Could I unbag my robot, and replace the shooter, drive system, and pickup?

Or, could I bag the practice robot, then on this day, switch the real and practice robots? Or could I bag the practice robot, then replace the drive/shooter/intake with the real version?

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

Treat it as a flexible Thursday of a traditional Regional event at your own shop. You wouldn't be able to bring your practice robot in and Thursday and use it, as such the withholding allowance is your limiting factor. At least, this is how I and my team have read the rules.

So, assuming your robot has an arm that is less than the withholding allowance, you take it off right before you bag your main robot on bag day. You attach it to your practice robot and work with it until your first event in week 2. In your time prior to unbagging your robot in the access period you remove it from your practice robot and verify it is still less than the whithholding allowance. You then proceed to unbag your robot, attach it to the primary robot, practice/do whatever, then bag it back up to go to competition.

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

This is also how I think it should run too. However, maybe I'm just blind, but I can't find the withholding allowance anywhere in the manual, and I can't find anything about limitations applied to the access period. It would be nice to know exactly what's ok and what isn't before we have to bag the bot.

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

R18

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

It's also worth noting that for district access periods, R18 specifies 30lbs total between the access period and the event. That means you can't swap out a 20lb manipulator for an upgraded one during the access period and then also bring a spare of the new 20lb manipulator to the event (total of 40lbs). You could do that with a 15 lb manipulator and a spare (total of 30lbs).

My interpretation of the rules also allows for the team to put an upgraded 20lb manipulator on during the access period and bring the old 20lb one they took off as a spare at competition, since that was part of the original bagged robot. Someone can correct me if they think this is a misinterpretation, but since I believe the intent is to have the robot access period act like a regional Thursday, this makes sense to me.

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

What's interesting to me is the fact that we can add unlimited weight of fabricated items. When you're at a regional, your fabrication ability is fairly limited. At home, we can do spectacular things in 6 hours.

On my old team, we built the competition robot starting at the beginning of week six. Before that, it was all practice robot parts. Once we'd made the parts once, we could get the frame welded up in an hour. My current record (which is still the fastest:), because we ran two CNC's at the same time) was 2 hours and 20 minutes to CNC, assemble, and mount two shifting gearboxes. Making the same parts two times in a row is much faster.

I think, that if we practiced, our full team of 50 or so kids and mentors could fabricate 90 out of the 120 lbs of robot in 6 hours no problem with some practice. So, if you know exactly what you need before your access period, and you've got your CNC machines/mills/lathes/welding team set up with the stock already clamped down, the drawings/toolpaths already made, and gave your team 6 hours, you could get a lot done.

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

Sec 5.6 is what you need to look at. Please note that you can unlock for shorter periods than 6 hours but nothing less than 2 hours and a total of six hours.

Re: Robot Access Period Questions
 

Just to clarify, you can physically close the bag earlier than 2 hours, but that access period must count for at least 2 hours of your total time (IE a 15 minute acces or 1:59 both count as 2 hours). This was different the very first year, but has been consistent since. This essentially limits teams to at most 3 unbag times. My experience is there is a pretty even mix of teams using 3 access periods, 2 access periods, or 1 access period.

Also, new to this year are "robot displays". Section 5.4.3. covers this new rule. The intent is to allow teams to do short displays of their robot to schools, sponsors, and ... but you are not allowed to work on the robot, or have extended acces times that might be construed as practice.