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Last year (our second year) we made an almost exact duplicate second robot called "shadowbot." All the fabricated parts, mechanisms, motor mounts, etc. were fabricated during the regular build season so that we could qualify them as spare parts if we needed them at the competition (we didn't). It was assembled in the two weeks after ship date, almost entirely by the students, with very little engineering mentor support, and a very fine job they did. It was so identical that the only thing different between the two 'bots that I can think of was the air pressure switch was different, and needed slightly different code to control the compressor.
Shadowbot was invaluabe for trainning drivers while waiting the six weeks until our regional. It also did a lot of PR and fundraising duty. We took it to the Lone Star regional, where it was parked next to our pit as a spare parts source. The judges and refs queried us as to when we fabbed the parts and built the 'bot, and were cool with it.
We plan to build a shadowbot of this years design, but I don't know. There are still some critical, hard to get parts that aren't here yet, and time is growing short. I doubt that we get to build anything as identical as last years system, but something close is better than nothing.
Oh yeah, it helps to have an adequate budget and happy sponsors.
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