[tsaksa]

Our team has more than 10 students, but not that many more, and the number that do the majority of the build work is probably less than 10. I do not know if my experience is exactly what you are looking for, but perhaps it is close. In my short time in FIRST, this is what I have learned.

1. A basic drive train is very easy to build, and a more sophisticated one takes much more effort for very little additional gain. If you do not have a large team, stick with a relatively simple drive train. No tracks, no swerve, no mechanum. You don't need to go completely KOP here, but something fairly vanilla will not limit you much and will save you a lot of effort.

2. The extras are nice, but not required. Some teams have elaborate pit designs, fancy battery carriers, custom robot carts, costumes, props, etc. All of these things add to the experience, but they take time and resources. If you are very short on resources and people power, let some of that slide and focus on the robot. That is where a lot of the learning takes place and the learning is what is really important.

3. Start early and learn the basics. Soldering, controlling a motor with a Jaguar from a PWM cable connected to a digital sidecar, and what do the lights do in different conditions? Learn to wire some sensors and switches, practice welding poly-cord, and how to break, splice, and tension chain etc. A lot of competitions are won and lost over some of these basics, and a small team has no time to learn these things during build season. Try to learn and practice as many of these things as possible during the pre-season and have at least some students trained enough that that can perform these tasks completely independently. Just having a few students well trained in advance on some important skills will make your team seem twice as large.

4. Look for the important scoring methods for the game and focus on those. This year the game looks like a basketball game. But, a robot that has a simple bridge manipulator and enough control to balance on the bridge has a chance to make it fairly far even without any shooting capability. And doing that part of the challenge should not be that hard for even a small team. A small team that focused on those requirements first should do much better than a very large team that failed to prioritize correctly.

5. Stick to things you know. If you have never used CAN, don't try to implement it during the build season. A small team will be more pressed for time and resources during debug. Don't make things more difficult that they need to be. If you really want to try CAN and never have gotten it working before, that would be a great thing to consider trying during the post season. Just not something to try on the competition robot this year.

6. Be flexible, both mentors and students. If you are short on students to fabricate parts, then try to pitch in where needed. Never compromise safety, but being willing to help in an area that is not your first choice, or even second, or third choice, is often needed to make a small team effective.

7. Don 't forget to have fun. The most valuable thing to a small team is the expertise that carries over with students year to year. Make sure that the students that are in the program this year want to return for next season. That will not only help your numbers, but will also multiply the effectiveness of each member.

That's about all I can think of, and Good luck.