[Cothron Theiss]

Originally Posted by GeeTwo

• Do you have a separate machine shop, or at least cutting room? Does your pit include any CAD or programming equipment?
• Do you have storage of stock and parts for prototyping and new builds (as opposed to repairs) outside of this small space? Do you have any barriers (whether a physical separation or administrative) to restrict access to this storage to better simulate the competition pit?
• Do you have multiple copies of the pit? Especially given our limited work hours, we typically have at least four separate build /sub-build projects going at once for the first four weeks of build, and its not uncommon for two robot projects to continue until we're ready to pack the trailer for competition. We don't have enough tools or toolboxes for four pits.
• As a halfway measure, I'm going to suggest we set up a pit for driver practice near our practice area. If the robot breaks during driver practice, the pit crew will have to fix it there. If this sticks, I'm going to have to advance "pit design" on our GANNT chart for build season!

• We actually share what was formerly the school's band room with a STEM class. The only machinery in the room is a drill press, band saw, horizontal band saw, and sheet metal brake. The drill press and vertical band saw are school property but were inoperable until a few members of the team repaired and refurbished them a couple years ago. The horizontal band saw and sheet metal brake are team property. They are located somewhat permanently along one wall of the room. When we need to cut or drill something, we take it to the machines and then assemble inside the pit or on a table in the room. No CAD or programming is done in our pit. This holds true at competitions as well. For 2016, the vast majority of our CAD was done in either a Panera or an Einstein Bros Bagel while I was on my lunch break, or at my house. A good portion of our programming was done at McDonald's or wherever the programming team could find WiFi. The rest was done in a small side office to our robot room.
• Mostly yes. We have a closet for storage of parts and raw materials, but we actually don't keep much raw material on hand at any time. It's something we really need to fix, especially because our members have lots of experience working with lumber, but we never use it for prototyping. Our pit is bordered on three sides by our own storage and equipment, and we string a cord across the front when we're done each night. (At least we say we do. It doesn't actually happen.) The original purpose of setting up our pit full time was so it didn't take up storage space and so the 100-ish students rummaging through that room every day knew where the classroom ended and where the robot room started. They know very well that the pit is off limits, but if we leave tools out, they wander off.
• No. Our pit's a thing of beauty that a mentor and his grandson welded together our Rookie year. We don't really have the space and that mentor probably doesn't have the time to do that again. This hasn't been a very noticeable problem for us because we don't have the people resources to need two pits. One of our biggest problems is that almost all of the work end's up passing through 2-3 students and 1-2 mentors. Thankfully, those exact students and mentors have changed just about each year, but it's still an issue.
• The more your pit crew can practice working together and getting comfortable, the better. One thing we've also done more through convenience than intention is that our pit crew ends up designing and building the robot cart themselves. We make a new cart each year, tailored to the robot and the crew using it. The pit crew always enjoys making their cart and puts a lot of pride into their robot cart, and I think it helps in subtle ways.