Quote:
Originally Posted by Aren_Hill
I'm remembering a quote along the lines of
"three most important things on a robot:
1. drivetrain
2. drivetrain
3. drivetrain"
Mr. Bill Beatty
(not exact quote)
so drivetrain development should be at the top of your list IMHO
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Mr. Bill speaks truth.
Also, if you have an army of drivetrains to play with, tweak, refine, program, and practice, you've got yourself a set of "showbots" to take to events. People get a kick out of just driving around a chassis. Have races, obstacle courses, get lots of hands on the controls. The more "laypeople" you have giving input on your design, the more you can refine them to make them driver-friendly an intuitive.
Later on down the line you can put a camera on one, a t-shirt shooter on another, a series of different manipulators. A good project to explore would be making your chasses in such a way that you can swap out manipulators - all with identical mounting systems, and an easy way to inform the robot what kind of manipulator it has.
One manipulator digs a small hole. Robot does this 10x in a line.
Another manipulator plants a seed. Robot does this 10x in a line.
The third manipulator fills the hole back in. Robot does this 10x in a line.
Finally, a manipulator waters the newly-planted seed. Robot does this 10x in a line.
Each time you swap out a manipulator, press a button to let the robot know what's on it, and let it do its job.