Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence
Hold on let me just support my entire robot with this roborio case so that it has a stress I can analyze for you.
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I'm a programmer, but I'm willing to bet money on if you design something for industry, you have to extensively stress test it in software before implementation is ever thought of. It's kind of like with code, only it's called unit testing then. Bill Gates got so much free programming time because someone who wrote the login info to computers back then they didn't unit test their code. When prompted to put time, he simply put a letter, and the software couldn't make sense of it so he got to use the computer for free.
NASA wouldn't have gotten to where they are today if it weren't for extensive stress testing, in software and in the lab.
I think it would be a good habit to get into the ensure what you design can serve its purpose in the worst case scenario. What if brakes of a new car failed after 10,000 miles? What if pacemakers fail after 4 years?
It may seem silly for a little case, but it pays off. It gets you experience, and isn't what this is all about?
This is a bit off topic, but I had an interview today for an internship for developing software. One of the questions was how I unit test (stress test) my code. It is important to do, and it could be the difference between getting a job or not. You never know.
And if you really don't want to do it, I'm sure there exists some program online that allows you to upload a cad file (I don't even know what extension they have....) and it will do it for you, or you could figure out how to do it in whatever software you designed it in.
I could easily see the quality award going to a team that has documentation about their robot's durability (and of course a good robot) How much the frame will deflect during a collision, stuff like that. It shows good engineering practice.