Quote:
Originally Posted by MICHAELABICK
I agree completely with what RC said. We too had never CADded a robot or had machining sponsors before this year. Before this year, we had never made it to eliminations. Once we started CADding and looking for sponsors this year, everything changed. We build by far the best robot we have ever built, finally made it to eliminations, and even were regional finalists at the LA regional. Furthermore we were the 5th seed alliance captains at the Fall Classic offseason competition recently. All of this success is directly correlated to the fact that we started to CAD our robots and look for machining sponsors.
|
Michael, having CADed the 1836 robot in '10 and helping Ryan in '09, I can say that 1836 has CADed in every year except for 2011.
RC worded everything perfectly. CADing a robot does not detract from the mechanical team members and their roles within the team.
The the value of the ability to plan and design a robot visually cannot be overstated. I like to think of it this way:
"Imagine the ability to build a product, run tests on it, and scrap it up. Only to do it again, and again, and again, until you are perfectly content with the result. All before cutting your first piece of metal"
Team 1515 CADs approximately 98% of the robot. While we go above and beyond by implementing electrical and pneumatic paths, this is not necessary. You should be designing at least 90% of the robot in a 3D modeling software such as Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks. Both of these are freely and readily available to you.
If you need any help through the learning curve (which I admit is significant), there is an army of CD users eager to help you.
Good luck!