116 tends to break into subsystems that present themselves from the game. Last year there was Control, Mobility, Swing Arm, Stacker, and Integration. There are also other non-build groups, Chairmans, Animation, and other 'Ancillary' tasks that appear. (Finances, travel plans, organizing lunch)
The tasks that seem to repeat themselves year after year are these:
- Mobility
- Control
- Lift
- End effector
- Animation
- Integration
Mobility is simply responsible for making the robot locomote.
Control is the physical wiring of the robot- layout of speed controllers and relays- as well as the code writing.
Almost always some sort of lift system will be used in some aspect of the game, stacking in 2003, soccer balls in 2002, floppies in 1999.
The end effector is sometimes integrated directly with the lift system, but ultimately there is some scoring object with which we must interact.
Animation isn't part of building the robot, but is still a major subgroup. This year our animation team is teaching the basics of Inventor to many students so that at lest one student on each subgroup knows it so that the whole robot will be done in Inventor before we actually build anything. (Hopefully)
Integration is usually the Team Captain and an engineer, and makes sure the groups are interacting and that things that need to shift can shift, or that an appropriate solution is found. They also make sure to kick people when, I mean
before they fall behind schedule.
Overall, the number of students in each group is determined by the total number of students. There is a limit to how many people can work on a part at a given time, but if you CAD everything out beforehand (if you have the resources), then it is easy to have many people manufacture parts, until you start assembly, then space becomes limited. And for repairs in the pit, we have a 'pit crew'. They are the only team members who are there all 3 days, the rest of the team is only there Friday and Saturday. They are the 5 people, usually one from each subgroup who put in the most time and best know the system. Other things come into play when selecting them as well, but that varies from year to year.
Determine what tasks need to be done, and then divide up your manpower among them. Define goals for each group (the mobility base needs to be done by week 5 day 2) and make sure they stay on track. Have fun at competition when your robot performs flawlessly and never breaks.
Wetzel