Yov,
Welcome to the FIRST family. This is a truly unique competition unlike any you’ve probably ever participated here. FIRST is a place where the teams help each other to grow into what we have become today. In FIRST we cherish an idea called Gracious Professionalism. It means so many things but the basic principal is that you always act as if your Grandmother was watching over you shoulder. You won’t find teams giving you bad advice to increase their own chances of winning. While at competition teams help other teams to improve their robot. Some rookie teams have come to a regional or nationals without a working robot and with the help of other veteran teams have created a competitive robot in less than a day (this is of course not recommended, but just a last resort).
You shouldn’t be concerned about technical complexity. In January you will receive a kit of parts. This kit has been designed to provide most of the parts you’ll need to create a basic robot. In fact, for the last several years FIRST has held a mini competition on kick-off day with FIRST staff creating robots from only the kit of parts.
What you are seeing on ChiefDelphi.com is the technical elite of FIRST coming together and sharing ideas. Most teams do not build multi-motor shifting transmission. In fact, I would sincerely not recommend you create a very complicated robot your rookie year.
Many times you will hear robots that have designed with the KISS philosophy; it’s an acronym that stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. Basically, the best ideas are usually the one’s that are very simple. For instance, a four wheeled robot that has two casters in the back and two powered wheels in the front.
Twenty-five to forty-five people is more than enough for a FIRST robotics team. It sounds like many of them have very good technical backgrounds. A good candidate for a team member is someone with a good head on their shoulders and a willingness to learn. It sounds like you have very many people like that. Another important thing to remember is that the FIRST family is always willing to help on ChiefDelphi.com. If you have a specific question about something very complicated, there’s probably a seasoned expert in the field who is willing to answer your question here on the forum.
As a 6 year FIRST veteran myself- 3 years as being a student in high school and 3 years of being a college mentor; I enthusiastically encourage you to participate in the program. Good luck with influencing your classmates to participate in FIRST. I hope to see you at Nationals, or should I say Worlds next year
