Quote:
Originally Posted by EricH
Au contraire! The mentors need to read the rules too. If a student says something is legal (say, 3" bumper segments), and the other students agree, and the mentors haven't read the rules, there just might be some nasty surprises at competition.
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The mentors should not just be there to create ideas, either. They should actually mentor. This means that they should actually work with the students to generate or refine ideas. Not only this, but they should teach the students how to make those ideas reality.
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Good points. I foresee lots of wasted time/trouble with random drive-by acts of industry mentors unfamiliar with FIRST or robotics or the rules.
Expected common utterances from drive-by mentoring, be prepared to deflect gracefully:
- "Lower the trailer hitch to get more traction"
- "Get higher traction wheels"
- "Latch onto their trailer"
- "angle the front bumpers to deflect balls into your harvester"
- "put a shield over your trailer"
- "build a flipper to turn over the other robots"
- "use a strobe light to blind the other cameras"
- "use my donated $5000 DSP+HD camera setup instead of KOP"
- "use two batteries for more power, or double the weight for more traction"
Potentially more useful specific questions for drive-by mentors to help with:
- What kind of bearing do I need for this rotational joint?
- What kind of fastening system would hold these three square tubes at 90 degree angles?
- Is there some kind of blind fastener system I can use so I add and remove this gearbox with just one screwdriver from the top side only?
- What parts of this existing robot can be simplified or weight reduced?