Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Our team is organized, but it all depends on the season, game, and what types of things we are trying to do in the game. Like, last year, we tried to do everything except the bar. We try to get our robot done before PlayDate in DC, which is at the National Building Museum. Fun!

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Their robot was mostly built out of wood, and it was made extremely simple. I can see how they finished it that early. They sure had an excellent rookie year.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Finish... what an interesting concept. I'm still hoping to do that to our 2003 bot. :)

I selected week 5 because I think my team might be able to do that this year, we'll just have to be a bit more organized. Although I don't think a robot is ever really finished per se, there's always room for improvement.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

I sort of disagree there. I feel that getting the basic robot done as soon as possible is very important. The earlier you finish, the more comfortable your drivers can get with the robot and you can also tweak it a little. Last year for us, the programmers didn't really get the robot until Chesapeake and our drivers didn't get to drive a fully functioning machine until Drexel really. I feel that this really hurt our performance on the field.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

I firmly believe that an elite level FIRST robot can be completed in 4 weeks. I don't think the fact that a team finished within that timeline is the indicator of a team who hasn't challenged themselves. I think it's a better indicator of the following two things.

- A well oiled "machine" -- To finish a robot that quickly requires a lot of subteams working independently, followed by these teams seamlessly integrating their work.
- A firm understanding of the importance of driver training. -- There's no better way to gain a leg up on the competition than by having well practiced drivers. Especially during the first few weeks of the regional season, practiced drivers with an adequate robot tend to beat unpracticed drivers with a superior robot.

This is why I recommend that all teams try and finish their robot within a four week time frame. It encourages team work, and puts you a team in position where they've maximized their chance of winning.

I've detailed a lot of these thoughts in a workshop that I gave to local teams in Ontario. It can be found on this page. It's in the "Running A Team" presentation.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Theory 1:
We finish at the end of week four and have a week to debug and practice driving.

Theory 2:
We get a rolling chassis together around 6am the day of the UTC Scrimmage Saturday before shipping and debug between then and the ship date.

Theory 3:
We discovery we are either way overweight or aren't playing the game right at the scrimmage and do a panic redesign in the last 48-96 hours.

This is a good case for plan for the best prepare for the worst. I have not had a competition Thursday at which I didn't have a panic of figuring out how to fix what broke so i go in with that mindset. I would like to have a clam practice day this year but I doubt its in the cards.

Remember when you say a good robot is never finished one fundamental rule for engineers:
"Better is the worst enemy of good enough."
Sometimes you just have to move on even though you know you didn't have the optimal solution.

Pete

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

We hope the key word hope to have the robot done it time for the Nasa Goddard play day in D.C. if they having it again. But realisticly i think we will be programing it on our way up to the play day like we did last year.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Our team should be about done by week six, if all goes right (which it probably won't). So either week six or as the truck pulls up to the school. But just out of curiosity, is it easier for teams that do machining on-site to get the work done? What are your opinions?

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

My team is shooting for sometime late Sunday. No we will be still putting the final touches on as it goes into the box. Thats how it all ways is and will continue to be. It makes for an interesting last week.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

our team is lucky enough to have some onsite machines to use and we find it much eaiser to use them in our build area then to have to send out the parts to get done or have to drive somewhere else to get the work done.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

if we lucky were done at 5 or maybe 4 we try to have a drivetrain running on 1 week :ahh: but if not we just mainly coast by just in time.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Am I the only one looking forward to that? Bring on the dangerously high levels of caffeine!

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

Time to bump up this rather old topic. The Robot is essentially done, and autonomous is good shape, I was looking forward to the all-nighter :( Of course we still have to tweak the numbers, which may take a while. Anyways, how did your predictions turn out?

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

We are still working on the robot :-( as always... We still have to perfect the drive system (we decided on a change...) as well as get our tetra-handler working. Autonomous... now that's another nightmare... At least the arm works very well.

Re: Survey - When do you expect to have your robot complete?
 

We packed up the robot tonight as we do not have school on Monday.