View Single Post
  #50   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 13-01-2017, 12:44
abigailthefox's Avatar
abigailthefox abigailthefox is offline
Registered User
FRC #1711 (Raptors)
Team Role: Programmer
 
Join Date: Feb 2015
Rookie Year: 2015
Location: Traverse City
Posts: 60
abigailthefox has a spectacular aura aboutabigailthefox has a spectacular aura about
Re: Robot in 3 Days 2017

Personally, I think the way Ri3D models a good design process is invaluably useful to new teams, and the way they are able to prototype some of the more prominent design ideas quickly and effectively is invaluably useful not only to rookies but also to teams who lack finances.

I think that many people who have been a part of FRC for a long time forget what it's like to not have ANY mechanical or design knowledge, and to approach an FRC challenge completely blind. Mechanical skills and design skills aren't really taught in the school system, and there are definitely teams out there born out of the interests of students who think that 'robotics seems really cool' (it is!!), and whose mentor resources are maybe a few math or science teachers from their school willing to give up some time to supervise kids building robots. Not all new teams have mentors with practical design/mechanical experience, and not all new teams have members with this experience either. Ri3D is different from simply watching reveal videos/reading about past competitions in that Ri3D films the design process and the prototyping process, along with information from team members about why something did/didn't work. New teams can learn a lot about how to have an effective design discussion, and how the design process works from watching this.
Yes, there is value in the team that goes in totally blind and designs something crazy that maybe doesn't work. But that's frustrating to a new team, to feel like they don't know where to turn for ideas, and it can kill young teams who are struggling to recruit new members and mentors while simultaneously feeling like they don't know what they're doing and don't know where to start or what is effective.

I think the perspective of how seeing a prototype works out from Ri3D has been well covered, but I do just want to say that my team has very minimal funds, and pretty much all of our prototyping activities are very crude and fast. Plywood models built in an hour serve a purpose, but they don't give us the same estimate of match performance that an Ri3D bot built with actual, game-ready parts by 'experienced engineers' would. Ri3D bots allow us to save time and money on prototyping, and help us see how a cohesive bot works with the system, instead of testing individual subsystems.
Reply With Quote