Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Alright, alright, one thing I'd do: dress up the robot without the aid of gaffer's tape. (Thursday afternoon and Friday morning right there.)

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

I agree with Ellen on this one. The code often gets neglected, especially autonomous code (at least for our team). Then we're stuck at competition programming the autonomous we've wanted and it's very hard the way the pratice feild is setup.

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Honestly, I think that if we were given more time, we would still be scrambling to get things done the night before ship. When I get an English paper, no matter when it is due, or what extensions I get, I will still do most of it the night before (what I'm supposed to be doing right now!). By that same standard, I think that if we were given 5 weeks, teams would still produce great robots like they do now, they would just have more long meetings.

However, maybe this is just me and my team...

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

You mean besides getting divorced??

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

For our team, our non-autonomous code is done within 4 weeks of ship. It's 'auton' that keeps us busy for the rest of the 4 weeks.

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

OK I am paraphrasing here so don't yell at me about accuracy......

Back in the olden days, when we were a rookie team (2000) and the only kick-off was in New Hampshire, they used to let people line up at a microphone and ask questions after the game was revealed.

After Dean and Woodie had fielded several questions, an annoyed mentor stepped to the microphone and said something like....."Why don't you give us more time? Why don't you give us 10 weeks instead of 6 weeks?"

Woodie stepped to the microphone and said with a smile....."Because we like you"!

Dean and Woodie understood even back then that extending build season would only make things worse.
I know you are just dreaming about possibiliites, but I thought you might like that story. :)

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Maybe added some swerve drive to our robot? We only have 2 weeks to design the robot, an extra week would have allowed us swerve drive capabilities.

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

That would have been more scary than you already were...

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

We'd probably still end up finishing at the last minute...

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

We would have tested a swerve drive as well. We would also fully develop different design solutions to the game, rather than drilling a few holes in wood and testing with a drill motor, then improving on the design in Solid Works.

I do like the 6 week build. I couldn't imagine anything different.

-Keaton

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Sign up for NURC in a week, and you'll have 6 weeks to do it too! We got an early start...that testing is gonna drag after a while....

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Students grades would suffer, mentors would go insane. Honestly, people generally are very good at making the task fit the time given to do it. I can't imagine we would get much more done.

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

Yeah. Our mentors were just DONE for a while. I was DONE for a while. Everyone else was DONE for a while. Grades recovered and then we had regionals at Week 6. :)

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

I would try and get rid of that pesky 'teleoperated' code. Oh and that driver station has to go too. :]

RALFF FTW! :D

-q

p.s. for those who don't know, RALFF is the name of the autonomous scripting system used in '06, '08.

Re: What would you do if build were longer?
 

no, you're not the only one. I think there would be many teams who would be putting on nuts & bolts in the crate. I think a longer build season would lead to low- to mid-experience teams trying something that is just a bit beyond their skill set. A 6-week build season keeps teams honest in that while they do stretch their boundaries, they don't try for the supercomplicated devices (whatever those may be).

Regarding a shorter build season, that would be a problem for teams who don't have manufacturing capabilities in their workshops. We use an independent company for our machining, and while they are gracious enough to donate their time and materials, we understand that our parts fall to the bottom of their priority list. If build season were shorter, there simply wouldn't be enough time to design parts, get them manufactured, and assemble them even if meetings were longer. (Especially when snow days happen - that nearly killed us this year.)