Quote:
Originally Posted by Michaela3229
Don't be afraid to ask veteran teams for help! Last year was my team's rookie year and we had no clue what to do. Luckily there was a team that has been around for awhile in the next town over that could help us, and if there are no teams around you there is always here!!
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They are in Michigan, so there's bound to be helpful nearby veteran teams!
To avoid problems where not everything is thought out before building and different groups being on different pages, it is always helpful to design the robot on CAD. Even if you only have little CAD experience, it can make all the difference when nobody thought about how attachment A might interfere with mounting manipulator B, and then all you have to do is fix the virtual problem by clicking and dragging before it becomes a real issue and the build is delayed due to lack of planning.
Also, don't take a bite bigger than you can chew. In some games, it is better to do one important task very well rather than many tasks decently. You just might fill in a niche for a very good alliance that allows your team an opportunity to align with some experienced teams who have designed a robot to do everything well.
Pay close attention to penalties as well. It is very important to make sure that your robot cannot commit any infractions that will be of detriment to your alliance, because many teams will pick up on that very quickly when scouting and this can usually lead to your team being left out of eliminations.
Make sure that everyone on your team understands what Gracious Professionalism (referred to as "GP" in many cases) means and how important it is. This is what sets FRC apart from other robotics competitions in my mind; the overall community spirit of teams all around the world working toward a common goal of inspiring leaders in science and technology while competing against and alongside each other to play a game. The FIRST community is held together by this common mission and the GP of everyone who is involved in FIRST.
Focus on sustainability. Make sure that you lay strong foundations for the team to continue in the future. Unfortunately, many teams are unable to continue being a part of FIRST due to lack of resources, so it is important to be aware of your teams ability to sustain yourselves into the future and to work very hard at making sure that your team can participate for years to come.
Good Luck and have a wonderful 2011 season!