Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark Sheridan
By going with a kit of part chassis, a non-elite team can get more time to go through the design iteration process, more time to come up with that genius idea. I would argue, time shapes ones willingness to explore ideas. When time is scarce, attitudes quickly change, people become more narrow minded from the stress and the looming deadlines. Ideas are not fully developed because people don't have time for the research, prototyping, modeling and building. By focusing less on the drivetrain by using a proven successful design used by many, one has more time to focus on other aspects of the robot.
My old team 766 frequently did drivetrains based off of kit of part drivetrains. It was a good tactic for an early start on the build season.
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The kitbot is also an excellent thing to build in the first couple days and give to your programmers. Many autonomous modes can do something useful simply by driving (2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2003), and if they have a few weeks of the drivetrain to themselves, they can work out control systems for the drivebase. Line-tracking, gyro-centering, dead-reckoning can all be worked on with just a kitbot base and a couple sensors c-clamped to it.