Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Noooo! Don't do it! :)

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Don't do it, we still have the 384 wall of fame, and I love it.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

I'm sad to say that the only one of our robots that is intact is the 2006 'bot (and rest assured THAT one will be enshrined forever in some kind of trophy case!).

Don't take it apart, even if you say to yourself that it's just temporary - you'll never get the various people required motivated enough to put it back together, should you ever want to do so.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Since it's this year's robot, I say don't take it apart. If you're short on space, do it in a year or two like we do (it's actually a nice little fun activity, people hitting pieces with hammers trying to get the robot apart). You need something to show off for recruitment, sponsor visits, and other demonstrations, so at least keep it around until you finish building next year's.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

As a voice for the teammates yet to come, don't do it. It is truely inspirational to see a teams legacy of older robots. As Ken said, your robot is a serious investment and should be treated well.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Your reason doesn't seem strong enough to warrant a tear down.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Please don't tear your robot apart. We have made that mistake. Some robots are destin to be scrap, its a matter of time & use. There is no reason you should tear that robot apart.

So again, Please NO! If you need a place to keep it until October or next year please let me know.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

For the sake of just using it for CAD drawings, taking an assembly and drawing it is right, as long as you put it back. As for when you should disassemble your robot for good, well thats going to be different for every team and should be in a different thread, which there might already be one.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

If there is any way possible to keep a robot, keep it. I can't tell you how many times I've regretted disassembling an old robot. It always seems that as soon as you take a robot apart, the next year's game will require you to design a mechanism similar to the one you just destroyed. There are few better learning and teaching tools in FIRST than an old robot... so think carefully before you take one apart. You can always try to stash it in a team member's basement (or bedroom... someone on my team did that once), but if you take it apart because "we ran out of space"... it's gone forever.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

Your old robot is the main key to recruit more people to the team. Our team use it most of the time to advertise our team and spark interest among high schoolers for science and technology.
I'd like to mention that if you get a chance upgrade your robot to something interesting. Like our team made a basketball launcher and a mechanical knight out of our old robot. Its not dismantling it, but more like using it to learn new things and at the same time recruit more people out of it.
Its better to use it for something, then putting it away, while it rusts in a warehouse or anywhere else.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

While I agree with your conclusion Ken, I must dis-agree with your logic. The money's spent on a finished robot are "sunk costs". They will not be recovered whether the robot is kept or destroyed. The reasons for keeping an old robot are things like using it as a tool to further inspiration.

Matt B

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

hahaaa. ok so maybe i dramatized the "tear apart". It is already in nonworking condition though, but someone made a good point that newbies the next year would get to see how it was built to solve the problem. My only fear is that i wont be able to get it in working condition again, and people will blame me.

btw, ive seen the first cad library, and A) it doesnt have a lot of the parts we use, and B) i have way more fun doing it myself, not that i dont approve of it. It is quite handy as a reference

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

well no, you cant get the investment back (how do you recycle invested time?!)

you run into this all the time in engineering - the first protoypes of a system you plan to build and sell for $500 might cost you $5k to $20k each. If the project gets shelved then all you have to show for the investment is two or three very expensive prototypes

at this point in the FIRST program each team robot has a value far beyond the sum of the components it contains. If you wanted the parts you could get everything that came in the KOP for another $4k or so, but if you wanted to build another robot just like the one you have, it would still cost you around $30,000 - because it would still be a hand built, one-off prototype.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

to rephrase what everyone else has said: Leave the dang thing together.

You also shouldn't mess with the robot if the other peoples on your team will be all upset. no, robots dont actually have emotions, but its kind of insulting to the thing. i mean, you slaved over it for six weeks, went to competion(s), worked on it some more there, and now you want to take it apart??? this is may be what some of your team members are thinking, and you should consider their thoughts.

Re: Robot Ethics?
 

We use our old robots often for the purpose of demoing for our existing and potential sponsors.

Having three robots running at once is a great way to drum up interest :yikes:

(Picking up balls, shooting balls, moving tetras :rolleyes: )

-Q