Re: Wood Chassis vs. Kit Frame
 

I think the use of wood this season has really helped us build a better robot. Not necessarily structurally better, but in the sense that we got more prototyping done and had enough time to go through several revisions before building the finished product.

In the past we would take a lot of time to go through a full drivetrain design and then build it over several days once our parts came in, but since plywood is so easy to work with and cheap (sorta) we were able to build a mockup chassis fairly quickly and put our prototype scoring mechanism on top. Playing with it a whole bunch revealed some issues that we couldn't have predicted beforehand, but construction time with wood was short enough that we were able to redesign and rebuild most of the robot.

Also, the old chassis made a neat display in the pits, and also served as a nice chair when people got tired of walking. Strong enough to support two judges. :)