Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken Loyd
It was a full week before we started even the smallest assemblies.
I like to think the planning paid off. With the help of Teams 60 and 1013, we won the Arizona Regional.
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I agree, this year the design process was very important. We spent a couple weeks figuring out what the robot needed to do, and how to make it do that with as little complexity as possible. This required making a small mock up of the rack the day after kickoff, so we could see how hanging ringers worked from different angles....it turns out that we were able to score 7 ringers in one qualifying match also....with only one motor on the manipulator. We designed the arm to naturally hold the ringers at a nearly optimum angle, after picking them up off the floor.
The more complex the task, the more effort you need to put into refining the design. KISS means figuring out how to leave parts off the robot. It is not easy!
btw, all 34 robots were on the field at the AZ regional, there's nothing "bad" about that! And any non-scoring robot with a reliable drivetrain is still a valuable alliance partner.