Hi All,
Sorry, but I need to cool things down a bit before people get too excited about 303 definitely hosting this enterprise. The students just approached the adult leadership on this over the weekend, and there are a number of logistical issues that would have to be worked out before this could become reality. We also have to determine whether this fits within our budget.
The space directly adjacent the shop is too close to delicate equipment and product to be a practical and safe place to build a field. It would also be impossible to locate the field there without disrupting our host’s production operation unless it were set up Friday night and at least half of it disappeared by Monday morning.
There is an attached building, however, that may fit the bill. A lot depends on the company’s production schedule as a bulky product is manufactured, staged for shipping, and then shipped out. At any time the floor could be full or empty. If there is a big order going into production soon, all bets could be off.
We will discuss this with the company’s production manager early this week, and if it looks possible with their schedule we will open a dialog with the owner. Our host has been very gracious, but our relationship is still young, and it is inappropriate to
ASSUME anything.
As far as when the field would be accessible, I think it would have to be limited to the last weekend, or possibly last two weekends of build. Having a lot of extra cars and people around during the company’s production time would be disruptive. Tractor-trailers can come and go at any time and need to have room to maneuver.
IF we can have the field set up for a week, we might be able to schedule one or two teams at a time during the week for drive practice, autonomous code development, etc.
Finally, an appropriate waiver would have to be developed, and we would need to limit the number of people per team to the drive teams plus a few extras, and at least one adult.
The bottom line is that while this is an idea that would be good for many teams and is worth pursuing, we need to slow down and take things one step at a time. As Nick said, if there are any other teams in the area that may have the space available, we should be looking at those options as well.
Thanks for the interest, and GO TEAMS!
MrA
Lead Mentor, Team 303