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Unread 02-03-2011, 22:50
Wayne TenBrink's Avatar
Wayne TenBrink Wayne TenBrink is offline
<< (2008 Game Piece)
FRC #1918 (NC Gears)
Team Role: Engineer
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Rookie Year: 2006
Location: Fremont, MI, USA
Posts: 528
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Re: Best Lift Design for Logomotion?

This thread is a great lesson about the design process - if you can figure out how to apply it. The original question was "what is best"? It turned into "what are we doing". The fact is, we don't what is best - yet. In time we will.

Early in the build season each team goes through its own process to estimate "what is best" and the result is "what we are doing". This happens every year. Only the mechanism in question changes.

We all apply our experience, think about how the game will play out, and judge our ability to actually produce the mechanisms we dream up with the available resources and time. How well did you document your thought process? Did you keep a record of your brainstorming ideas, and why/how you downselected to your final design approach? How well were you able to execute your design?

In you preparations for next season, go back through you design process for LogoMotion and see where you got it right and wrong. What timeless principles can you apply to repeat your successes and avoid your mistakes?

As for our team, we went with an elevator design. It is mechanically simple, quick, sturdy (doesn't wobble), easy for the drivers to line up under pressure, keeps critical hardware inside the bumper perimeter as much as possible, and is simpler from a controls (sensors and programming) standpoint. Each of these principles applies to just about every mechanism and every game. Did we get it right? Time will tell.
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NC Gears (Newaygo County Geeks Engineering Awesome Robotic Solutions)

FRC 1918 (Competing at St. Joseph and West MI in 2017)
FTC 6043 & 7911