[dtengineering]

Year 1: We finally got it working! There's no way we're taking this robot apart.

Year 2: Well, we need a few parts off last year's robot, and it really wasn't all that good, so maybe we'll just take a few things off it. It still looks like a moon buggy, and thats kind of cool.

Year 3: You know, that first robot doesn't work at all since we took the parts off of it last year. Let's take the control system and motors off, too, and build a practice robot this year.

Year 4: Lets take the motors off the practice robot we built last year to save some money on this year's machine, and we don't really have time to order new pneumatic parts, so let's grab them off the year 2 'bot.

Year 5: Okay, this is getting silly. We've got nowhere to put this year's robot. That old practice robot isn't working at all, so lets strip all the good stuff off of it. And that first year's robot... if we took the wheels off of it then we could store them under a table and... well... let's just take the whole chassis apart, but hang a fancy bit from the wall as a souvenir. And the third year's robot... well, it doesn't really need four CIMs in its drive train any more... it hasn't been in a pushing match for years now.

Year 6: Let's cut up the old chassis from the third year's practice robot and use that as spare aluminum to practice welding. And that second year robot... lets save its arm... that was a cool arm, but everything else can go in storage in a back room.

Year 7: Well, if we're building a practice robot this year we'll need the solenoid valves off of all our old robots, and the wheels... don't forget the wheels... let's recycle some of them. And we can pull the cRio off last year's machine... and lets take the Jags, too... we can replace them with an IFI control system later. And that Overdrive machine... we can re-use it's motors, too... may as well since we're pulling the solenoid valves off the launcher.

So... now we have one working Breakaway robot on its way back to us. One non-working breakaway practice robot awaiting an IFI control system and a replacement AM wheel (we broke one getting air off a bump in Seattle). One non-working Lunacy robot awaiting an IFI control system. One non-working Overdrive robot in need of CIMs and solenoids. One working Rack'n'Roll machine that we're all afraid to do too much to because we have misplaced the the source code to run PID mecanum wheels on all four corners off of interrupts, and none of us remember exactly how it all works, but think mecanum is just too cool to dismantle. One mostly working Aim High robot, with a fully operational pan and tilt nerf ball shooting turret that is just wayyy too cool to dismantle (some might argue whether Aim High was the best game ever, but it sure made for the best demo robots ever), and a collection of parts from the robots from our first two years.

I like to have one or two robots ready to go for a demonstration at all times... three is even nicer if they show off different abilities... but aside from that I think it makes sense to recycle parts and reduce storage space.

But I try to wait until the kids who built them are gone... or at least until they've fallen in love with a new machine.

Jason