Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I have realized that most robots, even the more complex ones like 16, 148, and 114, all look relatively good. You rarely see wires scattered all over the robot, and in most cases, you really don't see any wires at all. So my question is: How does your team design and build a good looking robot?

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

The first thing in my opinion that differentiates a "good looking robot" from a "not as good looking robot" is the use of machined parts. Finding a sponsor that can cut out parts for you is a very important team goal. We are fortunate enough to have a CNC plasma cutter available for use at our school. We try to use it as much as possible because this allows for very precise design of parts. The first step to getting machined parts is having a student or students who know how to use CAD software. Not only does this allow for quick prototyping and proof of concept but it also allows quick editing and very easy "export to reality." Once the part is completed and works correctly in the CAD software all you need to do is send it to a sponsor (even via e-mail) and they can cut it out in a day or two. This allows for very efficient build time. Theoretically you could even build your whole robot in CAD, watch it drive around and work and then send it to a sponsor to cut it out, get the parts and simply assemble it with bolts. I know that this is what 217 and 148 do. If you look them up, they have beautiful robots. Everything is fully drawn up in CAD, tested for proper function and then sent away to be cut. If you can't find a sponsor to cut out parts for you. Try to make your robot as shiny as possible. When I say this, I mean make everything as polished and clean as possible. This means stay away from lots of visible hack saw cutting, glue, tape and visible "oops I accidentally drilled in the wrong spot" holes. Clean lines, symmetry and as little "jank" as possible make a beautiful robot. I consider "jank" to be something that looks like it was thrown together without thought and planning. Finally, wire everything at the end and at one time. Planning the wire routing should be done after everything else is done, this eliminates the "lets move this wire over here because its in the way now." Mount all of the jaguars and victors in the same spot and close to the power board. This means less wiring over all and all of the similar wires can be zip tied together into sections. Planning makes a robot looks good.PLAN PLAN PLAN. And then of course add some LED's at the end :) (check out ebay, search for led strip, search by lowest price and order a 40 in strip for $6 shipped directly from China. :) It will take two weeks to arrive however).

Let me know if you have any more questions.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

1. Prototype before final design
2. Design before build
3. Build to the design
4. Accuracy and neatness counts

I'm on the electrical team so we run wires neatly and together. We use #10 wire for primary power so an extra inch or two won't make an electrical difference. Label everything, cable ends, connection points, Jag/Spikes/etc. Zip tie the power wires into neat bundles and the control wires into different neat bundles. Zip ties every 3-4" keep things neatly together.

Devices like Jags are mounted on panels close to their motors. This year the 8 Jags are mounted on the sides of the robot in a neat row.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

We won the 2010 - Xerox Creativity Award at the Denver Regional. Our robot has no CNC machined parts nor are there many metal parts in general. The main material used in its construction is 1/2 inch baltic burch plywood. It does have holonomic drive, and several other unique features, but the best way to describe it (and the words used to describe it in the award) is "simple and elegant". Your grandmother knows what those words mean and can identify a good looking robot when she sees one.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Personally, I'm a big fan of colorful robots.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34364

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Lots of CAD design revisions, a strict attention to detail, a high standard for manufacturing quality, powder coat, anodize, tinted polycarb, and vinyl cut stickers.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I really have to disagree with robself705. Machined parts can make a robot look good, but put those same parts in the hands of another team, and the robot won't look nearly as good.

The biggest thing you need to have a robot looking good is attention to detail, from the beginning through the end. If you're putting something together and you finish by saying "well, that's good enough", it's not going to look all that great, although it may function just fine.

For electrical, wire routing is incredibly important, yet most teams don't spend any time on it and end up with a "rats nest" of wires. To alleviate this, there are a couple of practices every team can do that will really clean things up:
- Making everything co-located as much as possible (on one board, for example) will allow you to spend the time to route the wires properly and secure them with some simple, cheap plastic p-clamps. You can get nice, neat, straight wire runs that way.
- Before you put any wires in, determine one or two "wire highways". essentially, bundle the wires together as much as possible (simple zip ties at regular intervals work great, or you can go with a braided sleeving or, if possible, plastic wire ducting), and branch off that main bundle when needed.
- Getting wire for your power needs that has a relatively stiff jacket lets you put some nice, semi-permanent bends in the wire, which can help a lot with routing.


Unless you really want to show something off, you can generally cover most things. This year, our robot has a nice aluminum hood that really makes it look nice (not that things beneath look bad).

Work with a professional print shop for your sponsor sticker, and learn the proper way to apply it to avoid air bubbles. If you have enough room, use a single sticker. A nice, bright sticker with crisp edges and cool logos really helps.

And finally, do some searching on the web and figure out how to make your materials really look good. If you're using wood, you can paint or stain it to look even better. For aluminum, you can spend some time working with it to really make it shine with bright, neat circles in it (polishing compound, a circular wood block, and a drill press). After a full build season, even the best of teams end up scratching up their materials... time for "beautification" at the end really makes things pop.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Carefully design your robot in CAD.

Then: poorly machine the parts (make sure to drill a lot of unnecessary holes). Do a terrible job welding (the key here is to make sure nothing comes out 90*, while maximizing burnthrough and blobbyness). Duct Tape. Use it wherever possible. When wiring, make sure to use as much wire as possible and tie it in great nots all over the bot.

...Then cover everything in plastic panels so no one notices :rolleyes:






What? You think I'm joking?

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

675 won the 2010 Xerox Creativity award at SVR. We have a couple mentors that can CNC parts, but primarily our robot is student built. A big thins is measure twice cut once. We won for being the only team there with a ramp. But we thrive on building great robots with little sponsorships or anything. I think its really a design and an ability to work together as a team. Combing the experience of seniors and mentors with the ideas of newer members allows for an efficient work environment. It doesnt hurt to powder coat everything though. :D

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Keep all the electronics organized and compact. The one thing that most people blurt out first when they see our robot though is "POWDER COAT"!

Powder coat or Anodizing is really nice unless you're looking for a more metallic look. I remember this year 75 has a really nice shiny aluminum look.

(I mentioned anodizing because in Atlanta last year, I saw 148's robot... I was speechless. The black anodizing was so insane I could feel my jaw drop. If you want to model your looks after a team, 148 is a great place to start!)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Anodizing, powder coating, and CNC machining can really improve the looks of a robot, especially when seen up close. But the key to making a good looking robot is careful planning, which includes the schedule, so you can take the time to do a neat wiring job, paint the parts (if you can't manage to get them machined/coated/treated), and generally make it look finished.

Last year our robot looked pretty good, it was made mostly of plywood, which we spray painted. A couple of coats of spray paint, sanded between coats, can be hard to distinguish from powder coating!

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Also a designed layout for electronics condensing and organizing helps make it look professional and efficient. It may be tedious but its well worth it.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Added bonus to having a nice and tidy electrical board: it takes way less time to pull the electrical stuff, or to fix a problem. It once took me 10 minutes to pull our electrical board while testing, with two people helping me look for wires. Also, try to go away from the "box on wheels" design that many teams are guilty of (mine included). It doesn't even need to be a fancy cnc-milled one-piece aluminum shell. For example, the top section of 2194's robot this year was made out of die-cut cardboard with a design printed on one side.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Minor counterpoint: Organized, then compact. I've been on teams that have done "and", and "then" works out much, much better when you're trying to fix it.

In the absence of a lot of time or resources back in my 1618 days, I had to pull a few tricks of my own. Among my favored tricks:

2007-2008

Plotter-printed graphics. Laminating them worked decently in 2007 (and may be all you need in years where there's no reaching outside the frame). In 2008, for fear of pokey robots (or bumbling students), we spray-adhesived them to lexan for more protection. I printed 1618's at USC, whose computer labs charged me $2 a square foot. (I often printed extra rectangles with just our number, just in case.)

Before/After:


2009

For 2009, we went with an all-black look--and about hit it. In spite of many last-minute scrambles right before ship, we were largely successful with a few other tricks:

Spray paint. The only part of the robot we were able to spray paint were the side and rear plywood panels around the lower part (and even then, only on one side). A few coats gave it a nice look from the stands.

Gaffer's tape. With the aluminum superstructure of the robot in the crate unpainted, and FIRST rules prohibiting any more painting in the pits, we had to figure out a new way of blacking out the rest of the robot. I was working a fair amount with a cameraman for a local TV station at the time, and he suggested a source for a roll of gaffer's tape. One roll did the entire robot with some to spare, and only ran about $20 after tax. (You might be able to find it cheaper elsewhere.)

Cut vinyl stickers. The last part of the puzzle was getting our schools and sponsors on the robot. Using the company that pinstripes our cars at work, I sent them the sponsors' vector art and had three sets cut for each. Applied properly (place them, tape down one side, flip down, peel off the backing, carefully roll it back up, carefully peel back the top piece), they look great and held up fine even on our painted plywood. Getting all three sets cut (including the differently-colored One Six One Eight) was about $75.

Another before/after:

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

we use painted aluminum sheet sideing that we etch are sponsors in.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

It's all about the small details.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I prefer the robots that look like they were made with hardly any time or funding. If the robot doesn't look good, people don't expect much and when it does well, people will be more impressed. With powder coated and nice looking robots, people mentally expect them to do better and if they don't preform well, people will be surprised. That's just my opinion. And I don't have any advice on how to make a robot look nice. All of the robots that I've built with my team in the past have looked only half decent although most preformed above average.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I think that you will find that teams that consistanty have a good looking robot also have a good brand image. For instance many teams have unique colors that they use on their robot every year. These team's robots are often able to be recognized from a long way off because of their uniqueness.

For example, if you were to put my own team 33's robot is a gigantic line along side of every other team in the world. Most people who knew our name, the killer bees, would be able to walk down that line and clearly distinguish our robot from all the others because our robot is covered in yellow honeycomb every year.

Just food for thought :)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I laughed for a good three minutes, because it's completely true

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I agree with this. The alliance colored bumpers really changed that this year though. If a team has a specific color scheme and it doesn't really go well with red or blue, then it changes robot appearance a bit.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I think giving the robot a face makes it look super awesome.





Also cading out your robot and knowing where everything is going to go (especially electronics) helps make your bot not only good looking but much more organize and easy to deal with at competition.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

For the past few years, 1189 has used fabric for either robot parts (2006), or robot coverings. One of our mentors/sponsors is a wonderful seamstress, and she takes care of all of our bumper and robot clothing needs. What we call our robot clothing is a easy way to protect the electronics, springs, wires, chains, etc. of our robots, display sponsor logos, and look good (don't forget, your robot's image plays a part in the Imagery award!). All of the "1189"'s in the following pictures are fabric numbers that are sewn on, but the yellow diamonds and sponsor logos are all some kind of laminated sheeting. I think that they might actually be stickers that were sewn on, because we have a ton of look-alikes sitting in a folder in our shop that are definitely stickers.

2007:


2008:



For the past few years, our robot designs haven't allowed us to use fabric coverings. 2009 didn't need it - we had a lexan-aluminum-and-zip-ties robot. This year we needed a hard surface to serve as a ball deflector, so we painted a piece of regolith yellow (it was last minute!), and plastered sponsor stickers all over the frame and the regolith. Stickers work well, as long as they're either sewn to something or attached to a hard surface.


(...this post coming from the team with 3 spirit awards and 3 imagery awards)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Spray paint! (and camo bumpers!)
Last year, 1511 had a contact that offered to powdercoat parts for us, but it was a 4 hour round trip drive, and the process took a while. Our drivetrain got done, but in the rush to finish the rest of the robot, we didnt have time, so we tried metal spraypaint, and it worked beautifully!

Flash forward to this year, and we again used red & black spraypaint, and coupled that with a crazy camo mesh hand painted by one of our mentors! Version 2 of the robot was a metal mesh with some more spray paint.

Its not quite as fancy or pretty as annodizing or powdercoating, but it works well to have a pretty distinguished, non-aluminum looking robot.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I totally agree! Our robots don't always look the best, but, especially this year, we have had no issues. It doesn't matter how a robot looks. If it doesn't work, what does it matter what it looks like?

Fabricated robots are nice, but we wonder where other teams find the time for that.
(We only have 9 students) :P

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Gota sell that sizzle! Personally I think that if your robot is more recognizable and rememberable (along with your team) it will be more rememberable to other teams for time to come. For 4 years now 1902 has have (what I think) very nice looking robots. We have a great sponsor who powder-coats it for us. However If you look at some of our parts; since we do not have a crazy amount of machining capability for cheap, we hand fabricate alot of our parts. If you take this years robot for example, we have an Aluminum tubing superstructure that mounts our hanging mechanism, and gives rigidity to our robot. There was no weight to powder-coat it so we wire brushed this part to give it that really nice Aluminum finish.

That is a little bit of what Exploding Bacon does :)

Hope this helps!!

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

How do you make your robot look good?

One word.........MONOCOQUE :D

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Close attention to detail, paint, and shiny parts! Also, graphics are nice too.

http://picasaweb.google.com/patfair/...36141225772242

-Nick

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I much prefer some twin wall lexan with some metallic paint and good looking vinyl decals.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/34981
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/21742

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

I have to admit your thrust robots are some of the coolest and best looking robots around, but i personally do not have the patience to build robots like that, but more power to you.


The biggest part of building a good looking robot i would have to say is for the selection process, if your robot looks like it is way too open, or some sort of extremity looks like it snaps off the first time it gets hit, I'm looking at your robot with caution. and in any spots where you have near equal talent compared to another team, they will get the edge because they look more durable.

1) So cover your main body of your robot, and if it looks good below the cover then make a clear material.
2) make sure any parts that you can see outside your main body look reliable and rugged.
3) Straight cuts, centered bolt holes, etc. Just keep it looking clean cut, unless that is the functionality of course.
4) Any sort of numbers or letters meant to be displayed should be stenciled, or machine cut, if at all possible! It really looks better.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

As others have said, a high attention to detail and added decals will make your robot look good.

If you want your robot to look beautiful, you need to take appearance into account in the beginning and design your robot around aesthetically pleasing shapes and elegant curves that are both functional and graceful. (like this for example)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

All kidding aside, I've seen too many robots that are very pleasing to the eye but their wiring is atrocious. Spend some time routing your wires in straight lines and use some type of bundling to hold them together (zip ties, string etc...)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

With only knowledge from California, I'd say 254/968 and 1717 always have very clean, professional looking robots. They look great.

254:
http://www.team254.com/media/photos?func=detail&id=1608
http://www.team254.com/media/photos?func=detail&id=701
http://www.team254.com/media/photos?func=detail&id=3084

1717:
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/31533
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/33969
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/media/photos/35361

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Good driving and an awesome autonomous mode makes any robot look good on the field.

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

This is my 5th year of mentoring, but when me and my fellow mentor started with the new team we were on, we recognized that a consistent image and a painted robot really does make a huge difference in your perceived competency.

There's something about taking the time to make your robot look good that also says you took the time to make sure your robot performed good. Granted the design you chose may not have been optimum, but at least you do what you set out to do.

We went with a consistent color scheme and a consistent mascot or feature that you will see on 2992's robots, we hope, for years to come.

2009 Robot "Dante"


2010 Robot "Chester"



It was as simple as a coat of paint and a plastic panel that makes all the difference in the world. Oh and of course we always put our hat on the robot somewhere. :-)

Re: Tips to make your robot look good.
 

Powder coating is great if you can get it, but a decent spray paint job can also do wonders. It's great for us amateur welders and really works if got a decent paintable vertical surface area. The last factor was an issue for many teams I saw this year, with the tunnel height (if they opted for the capability) and regulated bumper colors. This can take some forethought, and I certainly wouldn't recommend sacrificing functionality (hence the issue this season). It's worth consideration though, if not for your image than for sponsor logo visibility.

Another trick is to look durable, in both designed form and fabrication. Rack 'n Roll sticks in my head for this one. As a drive team, we'd rather not go up ramps that looked like they couldn't hold our operator console, much less our robot. It applies to every season, though. If you look durable and effective (hopefully at least in part because you are ;)), people will remember it.

The other tactic that comes to mind is consistency--over your robot/team/pit/logo/mascot/etc and over the years. We changed our shirts pretty drastically basically every year until last season trying to find something we liked and that was decently unique. I think we found it, and I'm glad we kept going until we did, but I did see the impact on scouting/name recognition during the earlier years.

And label them! ;)