QotW [11-09-03]: Buy 'em Fast
 

Allright, this week's QOTW has a brief story attached to it.

Clarkson University has a "low emission snowmobile team" as part of our SPEED program. Basically, this team buys a sled, and modifies it to be more environmentally friendly. The other day, we were standing around working on FIRST, and their team rolled in the brand new sled.

I think it was Eric who rolled his eyes and jokingly said: "We should get to buy a robot, and just tweak it, enough of this 'from scratch' stuff" (or something along those lines).

This statement made us all think.

Question of the Week 11-09-03:
If you could purchase ANY previous FIRST robot, which would you buy? (and for how much $$$?)
To use as a base for the 2004 season?
To study and reverse engineer?
Or for other purpose?
Let's hear it.



Of course this is a completely hypothetical exercise, we all know the real fun comes from designing and building our own robots!

Well, if you describe the 2004 contest a bit, it would make our decisions much easier.

I probably wouldn't buy any. I'd probably just take a close look at pictures and ask the teams questions. In some cases in the past, I've had enough pictures of several robots from a competition to reconstruct it from scratch.

Although I suppose I might buy some older models for sentimental reasons.

i wuold bye last years robt from 111. it was an awsome robot and id pay lots of money for it.as much as they wanted.

I'd buy the Baxter robot from last year just so I could make the gearbox into a pet. And pet it. All day.


That thing rocked.

I would buy WildStang's 1997 robot. I swear that the gym at William Rainey Harper College didn't have a tall enough ceiling to contain that robot. It was amazing to see how high that robot could go.

2003 Wildstang, hands down.

If there is ANY robot I could buy, I would buy the drive base of the 2001 Chief Delphi 8 motors swerve base. That drive system is a monster! I would buy it to reverse engineer/study, AND see what can be done to make it better. That drive base deserve more than 6 weeks of work to be done on it.

The Kingman 2002 robot will be another top choice of mine. Excellent drive system with really high speed and strong pushing force because of the transmission. But the most impressive about that robot is its arms on top that's capable of lifting 2 goals of 180 lbs each at the same time. I would buy this robot and bring it to team 71's headquarter and see which robot can push harder.

i would buy 267's 2001 (i think that was the year with the balancing goals and big balls) That thing was abeast it could pick up the goals and place it on the teetertoter

You know, I still have video footage of the 2002 semi-finals when these two monsters battled it out. I will see what I can do to get it digitized for you ;)

It has often been asked by people at demonstrations "how much would you sell that robot for." We have always responded with the amount of blood sweat and tears we put into the thing about 50k. However Id never spend that much on a bot id build it myself. However the questions was who's robot id buy. Well id go for 217 in 2002 for the cct 190 in 2002 and 2003 for cvt and ins. also id go for 111 and 45 2003. This way id have some awesome examples of drive lines and autonomous features so I could have one hella cool drive line to build some kind of arm on.

2002, Team 60, hands down

The Beatty Beast (71) from 2001. The world's first 710 match at the Midwest Regional will say it all.


http://www2.wildstang.org/2001/video/



Domination.

2001 or 2000?


I would go for their 2000 bot. That thing was a total monster. Im pretty sure that they would have won it all if it wasn't for a little malfunction during the elimination rounds at nationals that year. All I can remember is that it was my rookie year and at both regionals I went to, that evil CD bot was facing us in the finals at GLR. We had match 3 (my memory is a bit fuzzy im not sure if it was 2 or 3) in the bag, until CD came over to our goal, stuck their ball storage device in their and sucked out quite a few of our balls, swerved over and put them in their goal. Unbelievable. At the Motorola Midwest Regional a few weeks later, we were fortunate enough to be with them instead of against them, along with Wildstang. The Chief Delphi bot of 2000 is probably the one bot I would kill to get my hands on.

The CD 2000 bot is my favorite robot for that year's competition. No question about that. But in terms of the drive system, I would rather buy the 2001 8 motor swerve drive and not the 2000 4 motor swerve + caster.

Of course if I have the money I would buy both. They are both great examples of how cool FIRST robots can be.

I'd say Beatty 2001... that thing could do anything for any game.

2002? Can lift soccer balls. I'm sure they could put some kind of goal-grabbing mechanism on it, too.

2003? Probably could lift bins and stack with a bit of modification.

It's good to teach drivers with, too. It's an anything bot.

uhhh...hmm...

If i had to pick any one of ALL the robots...I think that i would buy "Chuck" (84) in 2002. Its an awesome robot!...plus im sure ashley would love me forever!

Of course, I would have to say my own team's robots... but then again, the old ones were taken apart for spare parts for the newer ones
:( :( :( (Good bye sweet memories!)

Anyways, I would have to say the team 95 robot from 2002.

PICTURE 1 PICTURE 2

That thing was awesome! I loved it basically because it was like a mobile pop-corn popper!!! It took the soccer balls and rolled them up into a hopper and sounded like a popcorn popper while it did this!

Just a sweet looking and sounding robot in general (except during the pre-comp testing when a few times a ball got stuck in the rollers and it made that awful grinding noise) ouch!!!!

what about fluffy?!! you know the insano bot from spam in 2002. Just watch the second match of finals at nationals that year and you will know why. I also loved wildstang from that year anyone rember that sweet interface they had where they knew the amps all the motors were pulling. the 25 bot from 2000 was really awesome that arm was big, but nothing stands in awe of raw engineering to the wildstang bot from 1997 we forget how much more limiting first was at that time. They didnt nearly have the freedom we have now, thats what makes that robot even cooler.

All in all its a tie between the 97 wildstang bot and the 2002 Spam bot.

Ok... this is my third year with FIRST, and so I haven't seen as much as some of you out there.

However, the one bot I hear legends about would be the one I would buy: Hexcalibur

I have heard so many things about how that was the best bot in FIRST history, etc, ad infinitum. I might also go for the placebo-bot or our own team's 1998 bot.

(nobody on the team knows anything about the 1998, 1999, and 2000 seasons from our point of view. If anyone remembers fury from those years or has pictures, please PM me.)


:]

Team 95 - Ladder Logic
 

I have a soft spot in my heart for team 95. The first time I saw their elegant ball sucking device I was in AWE. I could not believe how quickly they could empty the goal that year. Balls I SWORE would never come out through those bars squished right through like it was a walk in the park.

My hat's off to Dodd Stacy and the gang from Lebanon (spelling?)

Joe J.

hm

45 from 2003 (both of them)

111 from 2003

Bobcat from 2001, the way they put the goals onthe bridge with out being on the bridge, then scooting under the bar to the end zone was highly impressive

and the 2003 Technoticks machine, that thing was fast.

Team 95 not only had an awesome robot, but they are an excellent team. True sportsmanship, a great group of people. I'm proud to say that I had the priveledge of meeting and working with such an excellent group of people if only a few times at the 2002 J&J NJ Regional. And the grasshopper on the ball hopper -- pure genius.