[Peter Matteson]

Originally Posted by LondonBoy29

Hi, I am a member of team 1884, one of the only teams in the UK and the only team located in London. This is my second year on the team, and last year I realized that we were a good team with a good robot, but not great. I was just wondering how some teams manage to build these amazing robots. Is it because of engineers? the people on the team? the facilities? the money? great designing using CAD? I am just wondering what peoples thoughts are on how year in and year out some teams have amazing robots.

A short answer is yes, it takes all of these.

Continuity in the core mentorship is significant in making a team strong because it will help carry the good practices through and there is a lot of knowledge that will stick around with the mentors. As a mentor I have seen 9 games played, other mentors on my team have seen 17 games. There are somethings you learn through longevity of involvement that make the design and prototyping phase go faster because you've seen things that work and can provide pictures of old designs or actual old robots to work with that have similar mechanisms.

Funding is important obviously but the important part is having enough to build what you need and go to multiple events. You don't need a skyhigh budget that you brun through.

Facilities help, but you this like funding is something where you learn to work with what you have.

CAD is huge because if you can use it well you don't waste as much money trying to build things that don't work/fit, and you can learn to design for the fabrication methods you have available to you.