[Swampdude]

179 typically meets the day of unveiling to build a mini field and go through strategy and game play. We then determine requirements of game play (things that allow flexibility in strategy). There is then a few days off for people to work on designs and concepts. We rarely prototype. Schematic like designs are laid out in CAD to determine kinematics relationships between bot, playing field and game pieces. These sketches take on life as you work in the details. The devil is always in the details. Lots of hand sketches are made of conceptual modules. Each component is considered modular for revisions, replacements and ease of installation. Electronics are always separated from the chassis to allow tandem builds and not cause succession delays. We look for as many off the shelf components as possible without sacrificing worthy customization. The full robot is modeled in AutoCAD with every component considered. Then holes are drawn into every piece of surface area not being used for structural support or mounting. Materials are ordered and the chips start flying.

This year we started with the traditional arm bot design with a claw like many teams had. However we performed physical tests with our rack attempting to score on it with an arm while being defended and found it was near impossible. So we decided then that a ramp was more important and that scoring on any 1 level was all that was necessary. So about a week into the design period we started over. But we still finished the bot with 2 weeks before shipping. Each year we start with a fresh piece of paper, no 2 bots are the same.