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Unread 31-03-2007, 15:15
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David Brinza David Brinza is online now
Lead Mentor, Lead Robot Inspector
FRC #0980 (ThunderBots)
Team Role: Mentor
 
Join Date: Feb 2003
Rookie Year: 2003
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Re: Against all odds...

The FIRST KOP and the documentation available makes building a drivable robot pretty straightforward. Teams (rookies and veterans) run into trouble when they get too ambitious. Build the basic drive-train and chassis early (this is a good week #1 project) - get students to practice driving around obstacle courses while the design team develops a simple mechanism to handle the game piece or some other aspect of the game. Make sure your frame is almost an inch shorter than the max allowed dimensions - I've seen too many teams in panic mode at regionals because they didn't account for bolt heads, bumper brackets, signage, etc. and their robot wouldn't fit in the box!

Read the game manual and especially robot rules carefully - the inspectors will try to be helpful, but don't have leeway in making sure the robots are compliant.

A really valuable reference is the Guidelines, Tips and Good Practices Manual. Almost everything you need to know about building a compliant, reliable robot is contained in that document. Of course, you've got the CD community to call on if you have questions or problems.
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2003 AZ: Semifinals, Motorola Quality; SoCal: Q-finals, Xerox Creativity; IRI: Q-finals
2004 AZ: Semifinals, GM Industrial Design; SoCal: Winners, Leadership in Controls; Championship: Galileo #2 seed, Q-finals; IRI: Champions
2005 AZ: #1 Seed, Xerox Creativity; SoCal: Finalist, RadioShack Controls; SVR: Winners, Delphi "Driving Tomorrow's Technologies"; Championship: Archimedes Semifinals; IRI: Finalist
2007 LA: Finalist; San Diego: Q-finals; CalGames: Finalist || 2008 San Diego: Q-finals; LA: Winners; CalGames: Finalist || 2009 LA: Semifinals; Las Vegas: Q-finals; IRI: #1 Seed, Finalist
2010 AZ: Motorola Quality; LA: Finalist || 2011 SD: Q-finals; LA: Q-finals || 2013 LA: Xerox Creativity, WFFA, Dean's List Finalist || 2014 IE: Q-finals, LA: Finalist, Dean's List Finalist
2016 Ventura: Q-finals, WFFA, Engineering Inspiration
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