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Unread 14-12-2011, 17:53
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Re: [DFTF] Budgeting for a Competitive Robot...

Pulled straight from our budget sheet:
2011 - $1900 spent "for the robot" (includes spare parts and some new tooling, but not a lot).

Is it possible to build a robot for less? Yes, absolutely. If you have a firm budget, however, I suggest you start with some significant planning the first week or two of build season.

Figure out what you want to build, then figure out how much it will cost to build that. Start taking out capabilities until you're within your budget.

Alternatively, come up with an "incremental" design - you can add on assemblies/capabilities in stages, and stop when the money runs out. We did this with Overdrive to alleviate worry that we wouldn't have time to do everything we wanted. First, focused on getting something that could drive around the track and score points that way (only two balls per alliance = 1 team won't be interacting much with a ball). Next, build our mechanism for handling a ball - essentially sucking it onto the top of the robot, and spitting it out. If needed, that can be bolted right onto the drive base and we're done. Finally, build the elevator that's going to let us hurdle the ball. This way we gradually increased capabilities without requiring that everything is finished to have a functioning robot.
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