[pyrome]

Team 852 has been with FIRST for several years, so maybe some aspects of its robot design can be used by rookies:

THE FRAME:
Our frame is made out of 80/20. This is amazing stuff because it can be bought in very large stock lengths and cut down to size, and there are plenty of different connectors one can buy that make it easy to build a very versatile chassis.

The bottom plate is simply 1/8in aluminum plate, cut out and attached to t-bolts in the 80/20. This allows the electronics people to do whatever they want with the bottom of the robot (drill holes and bolt things down, for example).

The plates we use to cover the sides of the robot are made out of Lexan. It is soft enough not to crack in the heat of a FIRST battle, but hard enough to protect your electronics.

THE DRIVE TRAIN:
This year, we changed our drive train a little bit. We used four CIM motors in our drive train, two per side. Each CIM has a small gear on its axle. Each pair meshes with a larger gear, which has two sprockets on the same shaft. Those two sprockets attach via chain and sprocket to the wheels adjacent to the gearbox. Then, since we have 6 wheels, the wheels in back of the gearbox attach via chain and sprocket to the rear wheels.

Our front four wheels are traction wheels. The rear two wheels are omniwheels. The 6-wheel drive train allowed us to put the traction wheels closer together, which allowed for better turning. The omniwheels keep us stable and allow us to pack our arm away (by making more room in the back of the bot).


GAME PLAY DEVICES:
You probably already know this, but whatever you do, keep it simple. It's easier to diagnose and fix problems that way, and you might win the GM industrial design award. Whenever you design a component, come back to it a day later and ask yourself the question: can I make this device in fewer parts? Some of the best engineers can turn a 5-part device into a single masterpiece.

If you got this far in my extremely long post, congratulations (I'm done).

Good luck rooks, I have respect for you guys.