What are you being so negative about? Robotics is supposed to be fun, remember? We don't build just to win, or even to perform exceptionally well.

We build because we can.

Your 'bot
 

That is actually pretty nice for a chassis, but here is some advice on your wheels. It ooks as if you have 4 wheel drive with the grey wheels, and on carpet you may have "dancing" problems. For those of you who were at the practice competition last year in Sussex, WI you may have seen us, team 706, watching in horror as our robot danced as it turned. Not cool. Find some carpeting that is like the competition stuff, and try turning on it. If you dance, don't despair, just grind down that black strip on the black wheels that came with the kit and put them on the front or back, and that :should: solve your problem.

I noticed in those pics that your victor fans don't seem to be wired up. If you're drawing as much current as it sounds like you are, they're definately necessary! Don't cook your victors.

I see the usual "there's two weeks to go and we can't move yet!" panic is setting in. Probably about half the teams have gotten their robot to move under it's own power, barely. 75% of the rest of you will probably get there in the next week. It really will be OK.

If it doesn't look like you will be able to move by the end of next weekend (2/9) PLEASE contact a veteran team NOW! We can do a lot to help but we have to know about the problem. Team 1047 should contact Beach Cities robotics team 294 (try a PM to Redhead_jokes) as I think they are supposed to be helping you. They will also know what a drive should sound like.

Now for a few corrections:

The six hour robot was The Fembots at Silicon Valley in 2001. The primary co-ordination was actually done by Gunn robotics, team 192. (maybe because they are so easy to spot in a large crowd?;) ) They had major help from Team 22, Chatsworth High. Various other teams including 330, the BeachBots (my team), provided assistance as needed. In our case, we were asked to make the wheels. This used our process of grinding the top flat and attaching a custom tread. We were good at it having already done several sets of four wheels.

As I recall, the Fembots seeded #10 which was higher than we did, but they were not in the finals.

I am more impressed by what they have accomplished since then. When I talked to one of their mentors last year, they were running that little guy AUTONOMOUSLY. They had a huge enthusiastic support team. Their school was behind them (unlike the first year) and I look for great things from them in the future.

The only reason this robot was possible was that the Veteran teams involved were warned ahead of time and began planning in advance. The use of direct, van door motor drive didn't hurt either, but it's not an option this year.

BTW we haven't moved yet either. We thought we had the right size chain in our spares but alas it was not so. Should be moving tonight or tomorrow though, after we go buy some chain.

[quote]Originally posted by ChrisH
[b]If it doesn't look like you will be able to move by the end of next weekend (2/9) PLEASE contact a veteran team NOW![quote]

They've had all our contact numbers, Mark's called them several times. They've emailed when they needed help. Haven't seemed to want visits or to visit us. We invited them to send 2 student reps with us to Phoenix, but they replied they "didn't see the point". I pm'd him when he first posted here, but never heard back.

Hey guys, I think you can tell from all the answers on this forum many teams are willing to give you help and support. You don't have to do this on your own, and you're probably doing better than you thought.

Hey guys! Mark and our robotics engineer were just looking at the pics you sent Mark, and they BOTH said you guys are doing great. Mark said he already sent you his ideas.

Re: Anyone else with a really bad robot?
 

I'm glad to hear that we're remembered. :) I wasn't quite sure if that six hour robot that was mentioned was ours or not, so I didn't want to stick my foot anywhere if it wasn't. Although, I wasn't on the team that year, I heard many things about our rookie year.

Just a little story for all those rookies out there, we were once you, in fact all the other teams were once you:

2001: I haven't the foggiest as to what the girls did that year for the six weeks, but obviously nothing got done. They were about ready to drop the competition completely because they had nothing. But they were encouraged to go anyways as they did pay $5,000. So, they traveled from Sacramento to San Jose (2 hour drive) each morning and home each night, for they didn't have any reservations for a hotel. They just brought with them their kit of parts. Our teacher last year told us that it was awesome to see the veteran teams helping out in the creation of our little six hour robot. Thank you so much to teams 22, 330, and 192 (I heard people on my team were rather fascinated by the red hair)! Oh, and I thought my team placed 26th that year. *shrugs* I'm not too sure on that though. We still have it. We have dubbed it "the-piece-of-wood-on-wheels." And it works beautifully in autonomous mode. :)

2002: This was our "second" rookie year. All members were new as the previous year consisted of solely seniors. It was kind of rough to begin with since all members needed to be trained in workshop etiquette. We went well beyond our piece-of-wood-on-wheels, or six hour robot as the rest of the populous had called it. Major improvement. But we didn't place quite as high as we did the year before, but the experience and satisfaction of six weeks well spent was the best part.

2003: Those who do remember the six hour robot will be shocked to see us this year. But I'm not going to give anything away. :p You shall all see at SVR and/or Sac. It's simpler than last year's, but it works and I'm happy with it.

So, rookies out there, don't worry so much. This is a learning experience. Teams have to start somewhere and then learn from that for the next year. Every year is a gradual progression from the year before. Hope the story of the Fembots shines a ray of hope in people. :)

Team 990 is also running into the usual late-stage design problems. We just found out that our stacker can't put one box on top of the other. Thus, we modified the design a little, and promised to fix the downsides in programming.

As far as I know, we haven't even tried to get it to move. Electrical is still mounting components on the whiteboard (will this setup be tournament legal? Who knows?) and we haven't connected it to the motors.

Finally, our chassis (Mad of channel and angle iron), while looking fairly sharp and providing lots of empty space, is surprisingly heavy. We're probably going to have to swiss-cheese our 'bot, even though it already is built like a catwalk.


Even so, we can see a marked improvement from last year. Now, we have a few dedicated college freshmen who worked on it last year, several involved seniors, and two sophomores who give a $@#$@#$@#$@# [wow. didn't know $@# was censored]. No adults take part in it other than our combination physics teacher/team leader. I'm a little scared for next year, but I think they'll (not me; I'll be somewhere in the Midwest) pull through.

Last year, our robot ED, the laundry basket on wheels, didn't do so well. I think the main reason it didn't do so well is because we didn' t keep it simple (and for this I do not blame the students, I blame the engineers... ) And we are not a rookie team, so robot problems don't just occur with new teams. We have over 30 students, and a handful of engineers, and we talked about keeping it really simple this year as well, but it was sort of decided that if we did, the students wouldn't get as much (? experience, fun, knowledge, enjoyment, inspiration- choose any they all fit) out of building it. It's still too early to tell what our robot is going to be like. It may be great, but there's a chance it will run just as poorly as last year's, however, I won't ever call it a bad robot because I know those who built it and I know how much time and effort went into it. Win or lose, they will always be my favorite team. Now, for second favorite, I like underdogs, so I can give you my vote... ;)

Good luck with this year, and I hope you are all hooked, and I hope you have a team next year, so as soon as your robot ships, get working on funding for next year and if you want more students and some engineers, start advertising for them now!

MissInformation

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There's nothing wrong with being amazing, but being amazed is more fun.

well we got our robot built
then we started to drive it

there went one drill motor, a van door motor, and other electronics start to smoke. so just getting done fast isn't a major concern. if you take your time and do it right you are doing just fine

Don't worry bout it man. I'm actualy very impressed with ur drive train, execelnt work for a rookie team:)

Also, the great thing about this year is that a robot that just moves with a good driver can be an incredible defensive robot, knocking down a stack and shoving totes out of zones is really easy, so you might do much better than expected.

I only stayed at 247's build session today for about 2 hours, but while I was there we came across a huge problem that really made my heart sink, and later I realized the current fragility of our drivetrain. Unless our electric guys can work miracles....

Wood is a lot more durable than plexiglass as our team has discovered this year. It is odd because for the purpose we are using it for wood is an excellent choice because it is uber easy to attach stuff to it.

As a general rule I have found that the mechanical build team relies on the electronics group to work miricles in the same way that the computer group relies on mechanical to fix its problems and the electronics guys figure eveything will be fixed in software.

So I bet you ship a decent machine in spite of the set back

So many holes to drill.......