Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Now that our team has several robots from the past 3 years, we are not 100% sure what to do with them. This is their story:

The game with the chin-up bar (2 years ago): if you remember, our first robot was not so good (it's a long story). after the season, the robot was promptly scrapped and turned into a post-season funbot that did really well in some post-season competitions. It has been gutted for parts which were used in a programming robot for the next year. It's cold, 80/20 carcass sits in our mentor's basement.

The game with the tetras (I can't remember what it was called at the moment): since we did so extremely well with that robot (won NJ and almost won VCU), it is still intact and sits in our science teacher's classroom as a monument to our best year ever.

Aim High robot (this year): it is now on it's way back from Atlanta and will be used in several post season competitions. we're not sure where it is headed after that, but it's way too cool to be dismantled.

So, what I want to know from other teams is, what do YOU do with old robots? where do they go for some well needed R & R??

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our bots get left in GM where we work... mostly on display but we do use the old ones to train newbies, practice driving (the old 'bots as other robots on the field), and to borrow stuff from
I'd find a place in the community to showcase 'em

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

FIRST Frenzy : Raising The Bar

Triple Play.

___
We just keep out robots in a closet at school. One of them has been gutted for parts and is totally non-existent anymore. But you could always donate the old ones to a rookie team.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our robot from our rookie year (2005 - Triple Play) currently sits in the back of the Physics room still in the same condition it was after competition. We used it for testing of some of this year's components, but it is now back to its original state. This year's robot is currently partially taken apart, trying to make some changes so we can do better at PARC than we did in Philly.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

All of our old robots sit around collecting dust untill we have a demonstration or something, then we pull them out and use them. On some rare occasions we temporarily remove parts for various reasons, but they are allways returned or replaced.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

We keep our robots up in a loft above one of the horticulture rooms, along with all the other junk associated with our team (it's so crowded that we cannot work up there). We use working robots for demonstrations at our local pumpkin festival (biggest town-wide event in our city, and we get a booth and vendor license free each year). As of now, 2003, 2005, and 2006 are considered demo-able. 2003 (Stack Attack) is the best robot that we have ever built, and age seems not to have affected it, it runs well with hardly any maintenance (BAE GM Industrial Design Award). This is what we do with old robots.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

our bot from last year sits in a display case in our school with a lot of parts taken from it. we're planning on keeping this year's bot there too.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Do old robots get to Heaven?

Old robots never die- they just get their batteries taken and are no longer in-charge





:rolleyes:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Every time I walk into our back room and see our old robots on their shelf, raised above everything else, a bit of sentiment rushes through me. I think about the history of our bots..ours from 2000..the Champion on Einstein...Evil Machine 1 on Einstein at the finals..2 and3 at Nationals..and soon I'm sure I'll reminisce about the amazing season Evil Machine 4: The Enforcer, has had..

weird, eh :rolleyes:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our old bots get one year of "Show Duty" before they are retired completely. After that they go into the back of our research lab and may become victim of corpse robbers and freshmen. We have MOST of our robots still, but some have disappeared completely, and one is in a scrap heap in the darkest corner of the lab (don't know why, was like that before I arrived). Mostly our old bots aren't treated too bad, in fact the one and only BaxCat is sitting in the lab with its arm raised triumphantly (mostly because were too lazy to jolt the motors with some current to lower it).

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

We're keeping all our robots to go do demonstrations to elementary and middle schools to get the younger ones even more intrested in robotics and it adveritses for them to come to our high school cause if our student count lowers even more, we're going to be losing even more programs. But I think after awhile if we get up to like five bots, our sponser might take them to display the team they're proud of.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

we currently only have one robot left completely intact since the start of the team in 2000. the aluminum frames are in the loft of the technology wing, which we use for future projects.

we plan on leaving our robot from this year intact as well because it is a good robot for demonstrations and other purposes.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our robot from 2003 stack attack actually committed suicide. On the way to a demo for a sponsor its giant wings opened up and it tried to fly off into the sky.

To say the least, the highway and it became very close.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

we have our 03' bot (i think) as a trophy case. We store our 04' bot in a giant freezer (long story don't ask) 05' is just oout in the shop, but for a while it was at Tyty's house, in his living room as a coat rack. :ahh:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

X-O X-Cat will end up in our museam with all of our other robots. It's starting to reall get crowded in there though.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

team 578 was originally sponsored by Kodak in '97 and '98. The robot they built in '97 was very robust and had a simple 2 wheel drive train.

R2K2 was still in use a few years ago as a driving practice robot by team 578.

Generally speaking, robots that are robust and can be driven without a 1:1 drive:repair ratio tend to stick around for a long time. Robots that break after every 15 minutes of use tend to get canabalized for their control system and motors.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our old robots (since 1996) are up in a graveyard-like loft that we can walk through during brainstorming/prototyping the next year. Robots the team is proud of mostly still work and are on the floor next to the new one. Then one is in a display case at the high school.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Hmm I thought old robots end up carrying a gold ball across the country....or maybe im just imagining things....

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our bots have had various lifespans. Our 2001 bot survived in one piece until we scrapped it this year (it had died over the last year, and we needed the space), although half of it still survives. Our 2002 and 2003 bots were scrapped rather quickly. Our 2004 bot is intact with the exception of it's control box and one piston (which was used for our 2005 bot). Our 2005 bot is in the condition it was after IRI (where it got rained on), and is otherwise intact. Our 2006 bot is being repaired for off-season outreach activities, and will likely receive some small modifications for off-season competition.

I think 612 has the most impressive destiny for some of their old bots though :rolleyes:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Our 2002 bot was cut up by a graduated student with a hack-saw because of it's poor performance.
Our 2003 bot, which was the best bot that I have seen this team make, was taken apart and the parts are in a student's garage because he is determined to put it back together.
Our 2004 bot is in the back of a graduated student's car, it was really short.
Our 2005 bot is sitting in the closet at the school. It was used for driver tryouts and training. We want to fix it and bring it back up to working order.

I have no idea about any robot before then.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

2002 'Bot is in one piece, battery-less, sitting underneath a shelf in the school robotics room. It has a claw at one end and I have yet to figure out what the robot does since I only joined the team in 2004.
2003 'Bot is on the bottom of a robot pile in the school robotics workshop. Some parts are missing/gutted out.
2004 'Bot sits on top of our 2003 'bot and is completely disassembled. My teammates just got bored one afternoon a few weeks ago and torn it apart... It was the last robot to make it to the Championship competition.
2005 'Bot is in two halves: the arm for picking up tetras and the chassis & etc. It's on top of the aforementioned robot pile, but no one really dares to touch it because someone drove it through horse manure last year.
2006 'Bot is the only fully-functional robot. It rests in the robotics workshop and has won us a school club fair (ha! we had the biggest thing in the room!). It's not going to retire until the next season starts in January 2007... ;) We still need to take it out to do gigs at local scrimmages, festival, and get potential recruits for the team next year.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Well, it's either that, or you build an entirely new robot just for the sake of carrying a gold ball. Other than that, you can ressurect an old robot from the grave.

Currently, our Co-Opporation First Robot's Orange Gripper is hanging on the wall like deer antlers, mounted on a wood frame. It's impressive. :yikes:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Old robots get re-incarnated, we don't let them die.

We typically only keep a robot functional for 2 years; after that it is torn apart for parts/saving space/senior gifts (our team has had a tradition to give seniors a piece of the robot from their rookie-year on the team when they graduate).
Currently our 2001 and 2002 bots have no noticable parts left, not even an old frame to be found.
2003 has its frame lying around, but that's really it.
2004 is missing its RC, a few victors, and a 40 amp fuse block, and a few random parts for seniors. It's execution date is this Thursday, though a few parts will be saved since alot of our club will be graduating next year, and this was their rookie robot (me included).
2005 is funcitonal, though a few screws are loose and one or two of its fuses are dead. It's only missing one decorative piece and won't lose anything else this year.
2006 is sitting here in my garage. It will only be losing some bumpers and some lexan, though it might have the drive system changed during experiments this summer.

The only thing that's survived from all 6 years' robots is our monkey Rage.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

our 2003 robot was scrapped for parts after all the post season events. the robotics classes at our school needed some parts, and so did next years robot.

the 2004 robot was kept intact all the way until halfwar through the 2005 season, and then it was gutted and used for parts...the poor thing.

our 2005 robot, X-factor, is still completely intact...its twin sister, El Taco is unfortunatley totally dismantled and was used for parts.

we are hoping to keep this years robot intact, and continue to keep past years robots together. i know miss daisy, 341, keeps all their robots intact, which is pretty cool.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

973 has two robots sitting in our shop, 2 in the shed and one coming back from Atlanta. One of these days it's going to get too crowded, and I don't know what we're going to do.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

2001: No arm will soon become a cart
2002: I don't where the frame is but the parts are in trash probably why? i
don't know
2003: half together we need parts
2004: missing two wheels
2005: still together but not for long

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

There a little tricky to Baptize.

We Baptist believe in the full Dunk'in (Southern Baptist). That Sprink-lan stuff just don't get them into heaven. :D

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Im not sure about the bots that started the team but, the bots of the last 4 years, we donated 1 whole robot as well as robot accessories I believe to Katrina teams, and we have the base of Valcorie and have the whole Chainzilla in tact.

We used chanizilla to practice while we were building the Practice bot and than we tried to have one bot defend while this year's bot shot balls and stuff but something happend with the frequencies and stuff...

As for this year's bot? I believe it will hold the 2nd box while chainzilla holds the first and the new bot gets the 3rd to practice auto modes maybe??? lol



Pavan

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

that begs the question: Are robots in inherently evil?

Do robots need to be saved?

Who was the robot equivelant of Adam that caused them all to fall from grace and

who is the robot Messiah?!

or pehaps, since so much electronics comes from Asia, maybe robots practice something more like Zen, Buddishm, Hinduism...?

Do robots meditate to achieve cosmic awareness?

Do robots rationalize their actions? "The Driver made me do it!" - "Its not my fault, this is how I was programmed!"

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Well since team 379 does not have a corporate sponsor the robots have either been scrapped or in the closet. We only have a select few robots that were kept though. It all depended on how well we did with them and if we need the parts if it would be valuable. Our robot from our rookie year in 2000 (Co-Opertition FIRST) has been scrapped along with the 2001 (Diabolical Dynamics) robot. The 2002(Zone Zeal) robot is still together at some point but our goal is to get all the alumni together that worked on that robot and have an alumni build session this summer to reconstruct it. Our stack attack (2003) robot is up and running for displays along with our triple play (2005) robot which the drive system needs repaired because we used the treads for this year too. The First Frenzy: raising the bar (2004) robot was junk so therefore scrapped. Our goal is to have a room where they can be stored and no one will know where they are so the build team cannot touch them. We use our robots displays in the community. The adults and kids get to test drive them along with congressman and senators.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

All of our robots we have kept intact since our secound year in existance. Our first robot was disassembled due that FIRST wanted the electronics back. And all of our robots are still functional also, of couse from time to time during the build season we go to them for spare parts. And most of those robots that are not functional are often given to our sponser to display in one of their office buildings along with the awards that we won. As for the other robots we keep them in a closet in our woodshop. Yet this year with us building two robots one for competition and one practice I do not know what will happen to the practice robot.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Hmmm, good points ........

Say .......

Was the Apple computer the forbidden fruit ?

Does team 245 (Adambots) know the origins of all that is robotics??

Have we taken this too far ???

Will I be struck by lightning in the near future ???? :ahh:

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

every robot we have had is sittin in our robotics room very much operable.. except 2003's robot "gloria".. is in parts on the table.. were putting her back together this year as she was used for parts for 04's raising the bar robot "libby".. dorothy is upstate with "thousand islands" school to give them some practice as this year is their first year... she runs fine also... every robot we have is runnin a-ok.. i just recently built a platform for 04's robot to climb up... and she went up no problem

we generally use our robot to go to other school and lets some kids drive the robot.. we also go to events with it too... :-p

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Everyone hates to take an older robot apart, but there is one excellent use for older robots

use the control system and the default FIRST drive train to build a base-platform practice robot in the fall. This is mostly for new students on the team, to get an idea how to wire up the control and power systems, to get an idea how the default drive train works, maybe even to put a simple pnuematic system onboard.

Teams I have mentored did this a few times. The 'default' robot then serves as a starting point for the new robot after the kickoff - a way to get the brainstorming ideas flowing. "If nothing else we can build a robot just like this in a few weeks - now what could we do to make it better in light of this years game? What would you change, what would you add? what would you design differently than the base model platform?"

Also, it can be a very robust practice robot for driver training, or a platform to use to test out sensors and control system ideas.

You have a choice between leaving all your previous years robots intact and untouched, or turning them into organ donors to allow your new students to get up to speed, and to get your team off and running after the kickoff.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

604 has taken apart the 2001, 2002, and 2003 robots simply because they where beyond repair. They had been stored in a math class for a year, and other high scholl students had vandalized them and stolen parts. :mad:

Our 2005 robot is eagerly waiting its call to duty, and it still is Quixilver's favorite both. We have kept it running to run against 2006 in practice, and for the future challenges. And demos, can't forget them. :)

The future of 2006 will be determined once we figure out where we will work next year. Probably will be upgraded.


What came first: the student or the mentor?

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

what do u do with old robots they dont go to heavin they bare treated like gold on my team always keeping them working like the day they were made there is no heaven for a first robot unless it comes down to needing parts witch happend to our stack attack robot but slowley she is coming back together

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Well for Team 204, all the robots are taken a part and are use to make other machines. Also, we take the old robots apart and have the rookie members put the robot back together. We feel that the students can learn from doing this.

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

They don't go to heaven....It's more or less they get shoved in the TechnoKats shop and used again for inspiration for future robots. (You have no idea how often this happens)

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

In the TV series Battlestar Gallactica the Cylons (the evil robots) have their memory banks implanted in new bodies after they are destroyed. Or in other words, they are reincarnated.

Although they are very religious, I'm not sure if the Cylons actually believe in heaven. I do know however, that to them hell is the equivalent of not being reincarnated.

If that is hell for a robot, then team 100's robots are all in hell.

A scrap of aluminum... A strangely shaped bracket... That is all we have to remember them. We don't even have pictures of some of the more distant years!

Its kind of a shame I guess, but if we didn't dismantle them we'd run out of room.

Besides, some of those components are just too valuable to leave sitting around!

Re: Do old robots get to Heaven?
 

Battlestar Galactica for the WIN! :D

Team 1885's robot's being refinished at the moment, but will otherwise be kept quite nice :) Don't believe we have any plans to take parts from it or anything.

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2006 was team 1345's 3rd season, I have been involved with that team for the past year. The story is pretty interesting. I went over to Stranahan (the high school) to see Neha and take care of some robotics stuff when the team's mentor welcomed me to the team (A FIRST team asking me to join, I can't say no). Their 2004 and 2005 robot was sitting around in the back closet (2005 was in pieces) and knowing me I took it all apart to make a new prototype for 2006. As of now, the 2006 robot is sitting at DeVry University (Mission Mayhem was held there and we just left it there in one of the rooms, DeVry is also team 1345's main sponsor), I have to go get it at some point of time.