[Qbot2640]

I will add one thing to "Chief Hedgehog's" great list: Set yourself the goal to complete your build in 30 days rather than 45...

(1) If you succeed you will have a solid two weeks to give your drivers practice time - you can never have too much practice time...or...
(2) You will have time to build a second robot for competition and use the first one to practice.

(3) If you fall a bit short, you still have time to finish

(4) You get the opportunity to see what parts of the robot don't work quite the way you planned, what items come out of adjustment easily, and what things require constant maintenance.

(5) This gives you the opportunity to show your robot off to your sponsors and community to get them excited and increases your financial viability for the following year.



As to the observation about the number of "bad robots" I tend to agree, and (without invoking a great deal of angry replies) I believe most of the "reasons" that are cited are just excuses. I inspected during week one in Palmetto, and was astounded by the number of teams who came with a robot that was far from finished, or marginally useful at best. The Andymark AM14U drivetrain was an awesome resource this year, which meant that any team could have a great driving base before they left kickoff (do all kickoff events have a robot quick-build session?). Even if that is all a team managed, they would have been useful to an alliance this year. Especially if they spent the rest of the build season practicing and devising strategies.