[Joe Schornak]

Our robot has an all-steel welded frame, and it's worked quite nicely so far. Although steel is indeed heavier than aluminum, we make up for it by using thinner-walled material and very few bolts.

The trick with using steel is to take advantage of its greater strength. We're able to save weight by using many fewer supports than we would have with aluminum. Our frame is basically a flat rectangle, solidified by some diagonal corner brackets. It comes out a bit heavier than the aluminum equivalent, but it works nicely as a counterbalance for the elevator. The whole robot weighs 119.2 lbs, and is able to complete every element of Logomotion.

There are still many aluminum parts on our robot. Things that really need to be lightweight, like our gripper and minibot deployer, and things that aren't in high-strain positions are vastly aluminum. Our in-house machined components are also primarily aluminum, due to ease of work and speed. It is simply a matter of weighing pros and cons.

Steel's good to use in FRC, as long as you have the proper tools and skills at your disposal, and plan carefully. I suppose that magnetic minibots could be an issue... ours uses a fairly powerful neodymium magnet, and we haven't gotten it stuck to the frame yet. Yet...