Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery
Most of the "elite" teams share a few things in common:
They have dedicated and supportive sponsors, many of which give large amounts of funding, fabrication, machinery, and/or floor space.
They have a dedicated and supportive group of mentors, teachers, and adult volunteers who return year to year.
They have above average machine tool and construction capability.
They meet almost every day (typically at least 5 meetings per week for several hours) during build.
They prototype new ideas and designs during the summer/fall.
They have a wide selection of techniques and designs that they have used in the past and often re-use.
They have experiences and ideas gained from previous years games, results, successes, failures, and other robots.
They have a proven and effective design technique, and know what strategic decisions to make in terms of robot design.
They are mindful of weight, cost, and size constraints through-out the design and fabrication periods.
They finish fairly early in the build season, giving themselves time to test, debug, integrate, and practice.
They have skilled drivers with hours of practice under their belts by the time competition season begins.
They have robust designs that survive the strains of competitions with little failures.
THEY SHOW UP WITH FINISHED ROBOTS (unless they are 469)
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You missed one, but it might be wrapped up in #2
The most consistent teams I have seen all have a tremendous amount of parent involvement. This seems to be at least as critical as good mentors, and seems to be true even for teams that do not have a lot of technical parents.
So if you want to move your team to the big leagues, concentrate on getting your parents involved. They will go out and find the technical people you need.