[Andy A.]

As a nearly related topic, has anyone ever tried to work on another teams robot with out any of the original designers around? I have.

It's near impossible. It took me hours to do something that should have taken maybe half an hour, simply because I had to spend so much time just figuring out how to correctly disassemble a gearbox, and then how to get it back together.

No one ever writes user manuals for these things, and they are all very quirky. When you've worked on the machine from it's inception, you take for granted how much you already know about it, and how often you apply that knowledge. If I gave a robot to someone who already knew a thing or two about robots, they still would have a difficult time just turning it on, let alone operate it. Our robot this year could very easily self destruct if you didn't know how to operate it.

So, if you give away a robot, make sure you document how it operates and how to fix it as best as possible. And how to use it safely!

-Andy A.