Quote:
Originally Posted by akoscielski3
Would 48 and 3139 be able to shine a light into how they did it this year? Even though the robots werent Perfectly Identical.
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For the past two seasons, 48 Delphi E.L.I.T.E. (Warren G. Harding High School) and 3193 Falco Tech (Austintown Fitch High School) have independently built robots from the same shared robot design. The only common person "shared" between both teams in the 48/3193 collaboration is one of 3193's founders, Mike Mellott, who is also 48's long-time CAD design lead mentor. Fitch is his alma mater. He retains membership on both teams, which is good, as we are still attempting to bolster our CAD mentor/student ranks such that we wouldn't experience such a big dropoff in capability should he elect/need to become a part of 3193 full-time. There are many new hires running around here at Delphi....we're going to eventually snag some of them for the team, I swear.....
Both teams are encouraged to contribute freely to the design, combining forces during early design meetings. Once the base design is locked in, both teams seek to be as independent during our robot builds and operations at competitions as possible. Quite truthfully, few on 48 saw any of 3193's robot until our first event, and vice versa. When we're at the same events, we do help each other out during emergencies and such.
Both teams are free to customize their robots independently throughout the season. 48 developed a bridge tender inspired by 2614, along with a simple stinger, while 3193 kept the original concept of using the tilting arm as the bridge tender.
3193 does not yet possess access to the same kind of tech sponsors and shop resources as 48, nor do they have the same practice space, although they are working hard and fast to acquire such things. In the meantime, 48 shares extra sponsor machining capacity - waterjet, CNC, etc. - stuff we cannot do in-house - as well as other tech resources so they may have a better competitive experience.
We split part fabrication duties, with 3193 handling more of their fabrication workload in 2012 than in 2011 - a very positive trend that will continue as they add more mentors, sponsors, and resources to their program.
One of the most important benefits of the collaboration is our ability now to create a third, shared practice robot. This has been absolutely ESSENTIAL to our success the past few years. 3193 would certainly not have the resources to build one working separately from us, and with Mike mentoring both teams, 48 would also be very stressed to construct a practice bot alone if 3193 had a totally different design.
Both teams seem to have gotten along well. 48 has been more successful on the field than 3193 the past two years, but the people of Falco Tech realize that many factors other than just the robot play a part in that. It was fun being on the same alliance at Queen City, which led to 3193's first ever on-field trophy. It was also very neat (and unexpected) to see 3193 win the Queen City GM Industrial Design Award. We have felt that bringing the same robot design to the same event might hinder each team's ability to pursue such awards, but in that case, it wasn't an issue.
Will we continue this collaboration forever? Likely not, but for now, it makes perfect sense for both teams - a situation where more can be achieved by working together than by working separately.
Regardless of the design collaboration, 48 and 3193 will continue to be members of our NEOFRA group, which includes 379 and 2010. NEOFRA (it's a pain to type it out - look in the sig) is built upon many of the same collaborative concepts used within the more intense 48/3193 partnership. Again, we are all better off working together throughout the year than working separately, and we have a heck of a lot more fun doing it.