ATA 4334 Practice Bot

[Undertones]

Hey everybody,

We are currently in the process of designing and building a practice bot for our new members to get some hands on experience on some robots. We issued a challenge to some of the CAD members, to each design a practice bot. We will build the one with most votes.

Go check out our Facebook page to vote! Please do.

http://www.facebook.com/team4334

[AdamHeard]

One of the four seems to have a little too much firepower.

[Undertones]

Maybe. There will be no 240 Bravos on the bot. It was used in the absence of a Nerf Vulcan CAD file.

[StAxis]

Voted! Hope to see you guys do well next year and this is certainly a big step! I can see ATA being a name that sticks around for a good long time

[CalTran]

Originally Posted by Undertones

Maybe. There will be no 240 Bravos on the bot. It was used in the absence of a Nerf Vulcan CAD file.

Have you heard of a little thing called Bunny Bots?

[Undertones]

Originally Posted by CalTran

Have you heard of a little thing called Bunny Bots?

I had not until Google helped me with that. Why do you ask?

[CalTran]

IIRC, in 2011 or so part of the off season game they had come up with was collecting bunnies, but avoiding fire from a nerf gun. If someone more familiar with Bunny Bots can fact check me, it'd be much appreciated.

[nnfuller]

Yes you are correct, that was last year's game. The rules can be found here:
http://www.oregonfirst.org/wp/wp-upl...-2011.v2.1.pdf
BunnyBots is an amazing event that is created every year by team 1540. The current BunnyBot game has been released, and those rules are here:
http://www.team1540.org/bunnybots

[akoscielski3]

Voted! All pretty good designs!

I can also see ATA haveing a great future in FRC, and I can't wait till we get to see your new robot and this Prototype robot!

Congrats on such a successful season, your team earned all of it!

Good luck in your future ATA

[Adrian Clark]

My apologies for being so blunt, and as much as I hate to be the pessimist of this thread, I think your team is going about this all wrong.

A drivetrain, or any robot subsystem, on either an off-season project or on a competition robot should not be designed by one person. And if you do decide to go down the route of comparing multiple designs each designed by an individual the best way to decide between them would be to outline what qualities you want/don't want in your drivetrain and compare each one with a weighted design table.

I recommend that you outline what features and strengths you want your drivetrain to have as a team prior to any design. Then when it comes to the actual design, have design work done by experienced students who know what they're doing and can teach new members in the process. If your drivetrain is designed by someone who doesn't have a lot of experience then your safest approach is to stick to proven concepts and simple drivetrains, unlike your current designs. There's no shame in copying another teams drivetrain, as long as your copying something good. You're a pretty new team, you're not in a position where it would pay off to build some crazy drivetrain (from what I saw, the designs you're trying to decide between are pretty crazy), because the results probably wouldn't be as favorable as copying another teams simpler and proven drivetrain.

Just my 2 cents. Sorry if I come off as bashing you, just a little constructive criticism.
Best of luck for 2013!

[Undertones]

Originally Posted by Adrian Clark

My apologies for being so blunt, and as much as I hate to be the pessimist of this thread, I think your team is going about this all wrong.

A drivetrain, or any robot subsystem, on either an off-season project or on a competition robot should not be designed by one person. And if you do decide to go down the route of comparing multiple designs each designed by an individual the best way to decide between them would be to outline what qualities you want/don't want in your drivetrain and compare each one with a weighted design table.

I recommend that you outline what features and strengths you want your drivetrain to have as a team prior to any design. Then when it comes to the actual design, have design work done by experienced students who know what they're doing and can teach new members in the process. If your drivetrain is designed by someone who doesn't have a lot of experience then your safest approach is to stick to proven concepts and simple drivetrains, unlike your current designs. There's no shame in copying another teams drivetrain, as long as your copying something good. You're a pretty new team, you're not in a position where it would pay off to build some crazy drivetrain (from what I saw, the designs you're trying to decide between are pretty crazy), because the results probably wouldn't be as favorable as copying another teams simpler and proven drivetrain.

Just my 2 cents. Sorry if I come off as bashing you, just a little constructive criticism.
Best of luck for 2013!

I fully agree with everything you said. Thing is, this is a practice robot. We are building it to become more experienced; and I see no reason why we shouldn't experiment. We would NEVER use a system like this in a situation like build season. There was a pre-determined list of requirements that we came up with as a team before we individually started designing. These are all robots that we feel we could fabricate easily, quickly, and cost-effectively.

Best case scenario - we perfect an awesome drivetrain that we can hopefully utilize in the competition season, while teaching our new students about design, fabrication, etc.
Worst case scenario - Robot fails miserably and the new kids (and the old ones) learn what not to do.

I appreciate the feedback, as does the team.
Mac

[Adrian Clark]

Originally Posted by Undertones

I fully agree with everything you said. Thing is, this is a practice robot. We are building it to become more experienced; and I see no reason why we shouldn't experiment. We would NEVER use a system like this in a situation like build season. There was a pre-determined list of requirements that we came up with as a team before we individually started designing. These are all robots that we feel we could fabricate easily, quickly, and cost-effectively.

Best case scenario - we perfect an awesome drivetrain that we can hopefully utilize in the competition season, while teaching our new students about design, fabrication, etc.
Worst case scenario - Robot fails miserably and the new kids (and the old ones) learn what not to do.

I appreciate the feedback, as does the team.
Mac

Glad to hear we're on the same page.

Typically when my team does an offseason drivetrain it is for the purpose of prototyping a new drivetrain style with the hopes that we can perfect it and implement in the following season. Clearly the reasoning behind your offseason project is different from what I typically do, I shouldn't of assumed that your offseaon drivetrain was for the same purpose as ours.

Like you said, however your project turns out you'll learn from it. And for that reason I would support you even if you were to build the worlds worst drivetrain.

My only question would be why not aim for the best case scenario you listed?

[connor.worley]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

One of the four seems to have a little too much firepower.

Go big or go home.

[Undertones]

Originally Posted by AdamHeard

One of the four seems to have a little too much firepower.

You should check it out now, the firepower's a little more equalized.