Quote:
Originally Posted by Knufire
Another option you may consider is outsourcing your machining. I know several high performance teams with limited in-house machining capabilities who essentially CAD the entire robot and outsource the individual part fabrication (usually sheet metal) to a sponsor. This is a direction that 5188 is trying to move in as well. You do need a strong design/CAD subteam to make this successful.
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And a sponsor that will machine enough parts to build a robot. So far, NASA is our only sponsor who has extended us any machine time. What they have done for us as been great - we've been able to get custom weights for our Rebound Rumble shooter, wonderful hooks for our Ultimate Ascent climber, a shaft keyed for Aerial Assist, and some tote-grabbers for Recycle Rush, but we can't get anything on a chassis or large arm scale.
As you noted, we'd also have to get a lot faster at CADding - so far, we haven't been able to CAD fast enough to
keep up with our build, so we'd have to take it up several notches for it to
accelerate the build.