What do you do with your old robots?
 

What does your team do with previous years robots? Put them on diplay, take them apart, sell them or their parts, demonstrate them,etc. . .

We have all 2 of our past bots on display in our school. We occassionally use the 2002 one for demos and such or getting the new people aquainted with the inner workings of it.

We took apart our first two robots (1998 and 1999). We were moving into a different facility for a year, and had no place to put them. They were non-functional (the computers had been sent back), so we scrapped them and used some of the parts.

Our last three robots, (2000-2002) however, are still fully functional and are used for demos and testing purposes. One is at our sponsor's office, the other two are at our shop. They're boxed up right now, but we've hauled them out a couple of times this year. We've done some demos in the community, and also used them to teach new team members and conduct driver tryouts.

Our robots are mostly on display...they remain on a shelf above where we work. The ones up there don't work. (We've had to take some of the parts off to reuse or we had to give back the computers) We currently have two running...the current one and last years (which we still use for demos)

The origional Spark and 2 & 3 are fully functional. We actually had set out to revamp Sparky 1.0 for display. 2.0 is used a lot for show and tell, 3.0 is used for refrences to last year, and 1.0 was used somewhat last year for testing code for 3.0 while it was in Florida.

Team 155 The Techno-nuts only has the past three years robots in one piece and uses them for fundraisers. All of their past robots going back to 1994 only have a piece or two hanging on the Tech Ed room in the middle school. We only put up the interesting pieces on the wall which includes some drive chasis, claws, lift, and baskets. It is an interesting site to see. We also have our flags of 1997 and 1998 hanging there when we were the Toriod Twisters and Rail Runners. The good ol' days.

All of our robots (except for 1 that mysteriously disappeared<--not sure, wasnt around, i thought i heard one of the engineers we had back somewhere between 93-96 took it) are put on display near the entrace to our shop. Although they are on display this doesnt mean they have to work :D. Most don't, some have been used for community projects or "robot practice" (the team trashed one w/ our 1999 robot). Then what ever is left is used for development for future ideas or they are lent to rookie teams so they can see how things work on a FIRST robot.

Mysteriously dissapeared? How can you loose a robot?

We 'mysteriously' lose everything...nobody knows where the handle to our robot cart went...

We keep ours and use them for promontional purposes. Most of them don't work because they don't have all of the parts or are just plum worn out... but we still keep them on display.

our first robot (read: peice of wood on wheels... literally. it consisted of wood, the cpu, and two drive motors...) is somewhere. i'm not too sure where it is actually. but we did use it for programing practice last year. someone said that it's in pieces somewhere; it is yet to be located. but when it is, we're going to use it for training sessions.

last year's robot is still assembled (not a piece of wood on wheel, a very big improvement). well, more or less. one of the chains was removed because it kept on popping off. we're going to use it for demos with the rookie teams, driver training, and as a model for the new robot. i don't think we plan on taking apart.

Our Oldest Robot in Team 522's possession


ROBERTA - 2000 Robot - Current Role on Team = Turned robot over to Team 371 for their usage. Statistics = 0 Mechanical Failures to date, Still Weighs 128+ lbs.




WILMA - 2001 Robot - Current Role on Team = Ambassadorial Services, Retired, Public Relations. Statistics = 0 Mechanical Failures to date, Still weighs 129+ lbs. hehe,



DOROTHY - 2002 Robot - Current Role on Team = Retired, Statistics = 0 Mechanical Failures to date, Still weighs 129+ lbs.



Our 2003 Robot well we have a name for it already plus we already know that it won't have any mechanical failures.



All Robots that were built by McKee were built tough and Long Lasting. We Do not sacrifice our older robot parts to make new models. Our robots are currently being house inside RM 101 (our robotics room and machine shop) on the playing field where we test new drivers and come up with different scenarios to perfect our drivers.

All our robots get maintenance whenever they must do a big show (PTA Nights {color Guard}, Meeting Gov't Officials {Met The Mayor @ City Hall in March}, and Off-Season Competitions)

We tossed the 2001 bot in the scrap yard after stripping it of its electronics. The 2002 BOX O' DOOM will have one body panel saved and turned into a plaque sometime soon, then we'll un-bolt the extrusion and such for recycling into the 2003 bot. Extrusion = good.

Re: What do you do with your old robots?
 

All our previous robots were torn apart, except 2001 championship robot which we happily revamped this year.

We keep all of our robots(except the very first one) in an X-Cats museam at the far end of our site. Collecting 12 years of FIRST memorialbelia.

I believe we have our:
2000
2001
2002
Robots, and our 2000 will be taken apart this year :( that's just how it goes, we don't have enough room to store them