[Zebra_Fact_Man]

Although this thread is still young, I feel that my team hasn't done such a bad job of robot preservation as I initially thought.

We are a petty old team (15th year), but we are also a pretty poor team, which quite often necessitates cannibalizing an old robot for its parts. If a robot is still mostly in tact after build season, then it is kept and any scavenged parts are replaced. If it is mostly destroyed, we finish the process. Honestly, the only time we ever have a robot break down on us is when we rip it apart for its innards. They usually don't give us any problems.

Currently we have 4 "fully" functional robots in our arsenal:

2012: Current competition robot for fall events. Will probably be converted to IFI after WMRI and become our #2 parade robot. Everything is still competition stock.

2011: Downsized for indoor maneuverability. Also retrofitted with IFI (because we have 1 crappy cRIO and probably 12 IFIs) Currently missing 2 manipulator motors (needed for 2012), but can still drive and we plan on adding some back on the first week of fall.

2008: Completely competition operation until this past Sunday, when we lost half of our pneumatic functions midday. A simple diagnostics should uncover the problem. Serves as our primary parade robot since it is has many moving parts visible parade-side. At one point, it was stripped of its wheels, axles, pillow blocks, battery plug, and all accessible pneumatic pistons, but has since been refurbished.

2003: Manipulator has long been removed, but still drivable. Kept for nostalgia purposes (last team robot to not be welded).


I guess, when analyzing the situation, these robots have survived as opposed to their robot brethren because:
a) they were a good design
b) they worked in competition
c) they serve a postseason purpose
d) we didn't need all their parts (luck of the draw?)
e) they have a nostalgic value.
None of them are in pristine condition, but they operate which is all that is required of them. We are starting to run out of storage room, so I'm not sure if we will keep all 4 in 2013 or replace one with the new competition robot.