Quote:
Originally Posted by wsansewjs
I am just curious about the collaboration. What are the elements that is involved to keep the effort together, and what did something that brought all of you together specifically?
Fantastic outcome for the robots and team effort. I cannot wait to see all of you and share the fun! ^_^
-Josh S.
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In 1902's short four year existence, we have collaborated two years. Our best year 2007 is when we collaborated with 1369, hopefully 2009 will even be better.
1902 is a college mentor driven team. The heart is the college mentors working closely with the high school students. We adults jump in as needed and add stability.
It was the college mentors that started the discussions in collaboration. It starts with a mutual admiration of each of the teams. 1251 is very strong in mechanical and CADing, where 1902 does not CAD or very little and is not as strong mechanically.
1902 is very strong software wise, always having a good autonomous mode and large use of sensors. 1251 had little software abilities. So in a post season game the college mentors discussed the possibilities of collaboration. I then discussed it with 1251 adults leaders, we all agreed if the college mentors were for it and it made sense then we supported it.
We started by coming up with our own game design and desires, met independently from each other. Then we met to see if we were compatible enough. We saw we could combine our designs and each side was willing to compromise.
Then we started the design process, it was a give and take process, no different then doing it with one team. 1251 took the lead in CADing the design and we had many reviews.
Why this worked was because people were flexible, enjoyed working together and had mutual respect for each other. We treated each other on the various teams as being on the same team.
1251 asked if 408 could join with us, since in the past 408/1251 had built together, we agreed.
We split the costs for the three robots (really four since we are building a practice robot). Different teams did different parts of the build in producing parts machining etc. It was crazy at times and confusing and you had to work at communicating.
We had several telephone conference calls to make sure we were coordinated, since the teams are 2-3 hours apart.
We fell behind in building not because of the collaboration but because of machining parts problems. Finally all the parts came and where brought to Orlando home where we built the three robots together, what a crazy three days.
Team 1902's robot was generally built first and tested and we found out what worked or didn’t, so the robots built after that would adjust their design.
Principles we used:
1. Mutual respect.
2. Much communications.
3. Written and CADed design. Software needs were written out.
4. Identical hardware setup to learn from one another.
5. Identical electrical wiring and port assignments. This is so we had one set of software for all three bots.
6. One software for all three bots, so we didn’t have to have conditions set for each robot thus causing possible problems.
7. Driver’s stations wired the same. Again for software compatibility.
I wish we could have finished sooner, but I would not have traded this experience. I personally learned a lot working with 1251 and 408.